People who like to travel or travel a lot know all about the pressures of buying gifts or souvenirs for others to signify your time. It’s kind of a funny notion. You pay money to have an experience, yet you’re expected to bring somebody back a memento from your trip that they didn’t go on. In any case, while souvenir shopping can be fun, it isn’t any fun spending money on nicknacks that get thrown away after a year of sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
The scenario of buying gifts for people gets even trickier when the people travel for a living. Pilots, flight attendants, business professionals, interpreters, you name it. If they’re up in the air constantly for work, they’ve seen it all and they appreciate the whole souvenir thing even less than you do. If you do by chance find yourself in a situation where you have to get a gift for somebody who travels for a living, consider going these routes:
Specialize
As much as the thought really does count, a person who spends all of their time traveling is not going to appreciate a wooden turtle from hawaii that will just sit on their coffee table at home. They’re never home…and they’ve seen a million turtles like it around the world. It means nothing to them.
If you want to impress your friend who travels for a living, get them something that is specialized to them or their career. If they’re a pilot, get them something they can actually use. Some goes for any other career. Practicality wins over sentimentalism every time when people are used to a lifestyle that is based on efficiency and intentionality.
Focus on Relaxation
For people who live their life in aviation, the lifestyle really begins to take a toll on the body, as well as the mind and spirit. It’s a fun, adventurous line of work, but when you work long hours and you’re crossing international borders 20 times a day, the stress of the job really starts to get to you. If you want to get a friend who travels a lot a gift that matters and will really help them, focus on relaxation.
What can you do to help them take a load off? Maybe you could arrange a massage or a spa experience. Perhaps you can find out what their next destination is and meet them their for a rendezvous where the two of you spend the time off relaxing on the beach or drinking wine in the countryside.
If you have friends who travel for a living, think a little harder about what you can give that will help them. Gifts are always appreciated, but when you specialize and focus on the basic needs of a human, it makes the thought and application of the gift that much more special.
