For travel's sake?

"I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints." -Robert Louis Stevenson


I don't want to travel for travel's sake. Although I agree with Stevenson that it is good to "come down off this feather-bed of civilization" once in awhile, I don't want to merely do it for "travel's sake". I hate just "seeing the sights" and "being a tourist". I'm glad that I'm in Quito for 10 weeks instead of spot-hopping. This way I feel like I can get to know a place and a people a little bit better. Maybe build some relationships. Even, perhaps, contribute to or improve the place that I'm visiting in some way. This way seems better and definitely more attractive to me. To "travel for travel's sake" seems arrogant, superfluous, and vain. So many people (especially in touristy places) are not able to travel because they are too poor. To "travel for travel's sake" feels like taking advantage of those people, taking their picture, rubbing it in their face, pointing, and then leaving them worse off than they were before. I don't want to plop down somewhere, take whatever I can take, create some trash, then leave. I want to, if possible in some way, improve, add to, or give back to those places I am fortunate enough to visit. Travelling is a privilege, a rare one in the world, not a right. Sure I want to see the world, but an even greater desire is to see the world improve. Call me a hopeless, hypocritical idealist - but I'd rather prefer ameliorist.