‘If we are at home, then let the world come to us’

Zeynep Atılgan Boneval, after working in corporate jobs for many years, travelHe has traveled to 100 countries and more than 350 destinations with his passion. When he started to tell the people around him about the places he had discovered over the years, he decided to write his road stories on traveloterapisi.com.

Nowadays, he says “If we are at home, then let the world come to us” and shares his travel stories as a podcast series at the microphone. Zeynep Atılgan Boneval, who made the listeners feel like they were in the places they went, with sound effects and fairy-tale narrations in the recordings you can find on podcast platforms, answered our questions.

What did you aim to tell in your podcast broadcast? What concept do you have?

Traveling is such a passion for me that my curiosity to discover new places since I was 12 years old has taken me to 100 countries so far. 11 years ago, I left my 20-year career from marketing to general manager and set sail for a life where I could travel more and share these journeys. Then I set up my website called Journey Therapy.

I share with photographs my impressions, feelings and learnings of the places I have visited in 100 countries I have visited and the places I have discovered in our beautiful country.coronaI was on the road 75 days a year before During the pandemic, we were forced to stay at home.

Let’s explore together

And these audio recordings turned out?

Yes, I went to the microphone to tell my travel stories, saying, “If we are at home, then let the world come to us”. My desire was to explore different corners of the world together with stories and imagination. I replaced our sense of sight with daydreaming and aimed for a kind of auditory journey therapy. So my goal is to share the magic of the world with those who listen. Listening to a fairy tale before sleep or in traffic, on a walk,food While I’m doing it, I calmly read my impressions of the lands that have fascinated me until now into the microphone in order to go to another world.

Why is travel therapy?

Every different country I have been to has offered me a new way of life, a new culture, new colours, tastes, smells and rituals. Travels are the time period in which we know the value of ‘moments’ best. Because with all our senses, we are distracted. We live every second to digest. We are always ‘here’ and ‘now’ with our mind and soul.

On the journey, we bravely blend into the crowds, diving into every street wherever we go. On the trip, we get out of the daily routine. We see different environments, people, architectures, different clothing, traditions and lifestyles. These innovations stimulate our curiosity and stimulate our senses. So essentially, when we go with the current in our own city, on the trip we stand upstream and observe.

What do they give us?

We are filled with new inspirations, new ideas come to mind, that is, our creative side comes out. Journey is the acceptance of otherness. We see such different lifestyles and perspectives that our horizons expand, our prejudices are broken, and we learn to accept differences. We free our minds. When we think we are going far away, we make a journey inside. Travel is freedom. During the journey, we get rid of the roles, identities and social clothes that we cannot get rid of in daily life. We just become human. The journey is transformation; It reminds us that life is unknown, uncontrollable. Travel is a therapy because it reminds us to live with all our senses and to remind ourselves of our essence.

What kind of interaction do you have with your followers other than your podcasts?

Traveling and sharing my journeys is my passion. It is as if the places I go tell me their stories, and I would like to share the happiness of this with everyone like a child sharing his toys. During my travels, I make posts and live broadcasts on social media channels. On my return, I will upload articles and photos to my travel therapy website.

But the trips got stuck in the pandemic, it was interrupted…

In April 2020, when travels were interrupted for the first time, we conducted a survey on both e-mail and social media with the question “Where do you want to meet in Turkey when healthy days come?” About 2,000 responses were received. Everyone missed the sea shores and nature the most because of staying indoors in the days when the weather started to warm up. The answers were in the form of beaches such as Datça, Selimiye, Ayvalık, Gökçeada, Alaçatı and Bozcaada, as well as nature routes such as the Black Sea plateaus, Cappadocia and Kaz Mountains.

Do you think our travel habits will change?

With the pandemic, it’s like the world is saying to us, “Stop! Take a breath! Let me breathe too.” Just as the way of life and functioning of the whole world has changed to adapt to Corona, so will our travels. It was so many and so fast that everything; We had made the world, even travel, a fast-moving consumer product. While we were on a trip, we were planning another.

We were flying without thinking about our carbon footprint. In fact, the world was warning us about problems such as global warming, natural disasters such as fire and floods, decrease in water reserves, hunger and poverty. However, with the corona epidemic, it has made it clear that everyone, without exception, is responsible for the world.

So which forms of travel will be more popular now?

We need to gradually learn to travel slower and savor the moment, to be mindful travelers who take responsibility for a sustainable world, conscious of our damage and footprints. I guess the new concepts of our travels will now be far from the crowds, very meticulous about hygiene, less in number but long and slow to savor the moment, more conscious and responsible.

We will appreciate the world more: ‘slow travel’, ‘ecological travel’, ‘nature travel’, ‘caravan travel’, ‘bike travel’, ‘eco camps’, ‘glamping’, ‘nomadic hotels’, ‘gastronomic travels’, Nature and eco-friendly travel trends, such as ‘health travel’, which have already existed for the last five years, are gaining momentum. Now that we’re avoiding crowds, we’ll look for ‘originality’ rather than ‘popularity’.

Traveling all the time is fun, but isn’t it expensive?

Traveling started as a hobby and a hobby. I was working at that time and I was adjusting my budget according to my travels. As a result of this curiosity and passion, my work turned into travel and storytelling. As the number of my website, travel e-bulletins and social media followers increased, I collaborated with some brands that identified with both the spirit of travel and travel. I was also trying to decide on my travels well in advance so that I could get tickets more affordable.

Listen, listen and travel from Africa to the Galapagos!

In the podcast series, we return to the ‘Mother Earth’ in Africa and spend a day together on Safari and learn about the life styles and surprising features of the wild animals that are the real owners of this land. We are talking about the unique feelings created by being able to witness the sunrise and sunset in untouched nature, to feel the smell of the soil again, and to be fascinated in nature.

I share my epic and mysterious experiences in Myanmar, the land of magical pagodas, with its unspoiled traditional Buddhist culture, friendly and sincere people, and magnificent landscapes among thousands of pagodas, monasteries and temples.

We are traveling to the Galapagos Islands, which are almost fantastic planets where all living things have different colors and sizes than those we are used to, and where Darwin matured his theory of evolution.

We are traveling to Bhutan, the magical fairy tale kingdom in the Himalayas, offering the purest form of Buddhism, with its peaceful people, temples carved into steep hills, flying prayer flags, and untouched and exquisite nature.

In our adventure in Uganda in the footsteps of mountain gorillas, I am sharing our step-by-step walk into the depths of the rain forest, our exciting encounter with the gorilla family, our heart-warming encounter with the silverback, the young and baby gorillas walking side by side with us, and the close contact with the wild nature.

In Machu Picchu, stretching out from the clouds to the sky, we describe step by step how the Incas built an unbelievably large city on a hill 2,400 meters high, why this mysterious city remained a ‘lost city’ for 300 years and was found again, and we envision this breathtaking city step by step. .

Our podcast journey will continue with the places that impressed me the most: Ethiopia, Mongolia, Iceland, India, Iran and Yemen.