When you boil it down, what is the essence of "travel", really? The reasons people do it are primarily to experience something quite different from their day-to-day lives, and to escape from the mundane in order to feel a sense of wonder and fascination. It's hard for me to imagine anyone on this board who doesn't want an occasional, fascinating experience that's very different from their regular routine, so in that sense I think we really all do like the uplifting aspects of travel, even if not the "distant journey" aspect of it.
For example, I went with a friend a couple years ago to a place way out in rural Georgia to ride ATVs around a bunch of winding, hilly, dirt trails through the woods. Needless to say, it was a novel experience for both of us and was a huge departure from our daily routine. And it was fascinating to see the whole operation and to interact with the locals and be immersed in their quintessential rural Southern culture for a whole afternoon. We both left there that day feeling so energized and exhilarated, and we had the most interesting conversation in the car on the long drive back home. For us, this wasn't exactly a "travel" experience, since the place was only about 80 miles away, but it still provided a fascinating escape from our regular routines and made us feel like we'd gotten out and experienced a whole new aspect to the world. I think pretty much everyone wants these kinds of experiences from time to time on some level, and travel is essentially just a more distant, more elaborate version of this.