Every year, the world is more connected, physically and virtually. More than 1.2 billion people increased their knowledge and understanding of new cultures by visiting another country—navigating boundaries that are both real and imaginary.

Humans are explorers. We are naturally curious. At our best, we want to learn everything we don’t already know. So we travel—whether by land, or sea, or space, through our imagination, or through the pages of Wikipedia. How many of your visits to Wikipedia have ended far from where they started?

“Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”

—Ibn Battuta

These voyages were made possible by someone like you. People all over the world contribute to Wikipedia by documenting culture, history, and discovery and by helping us learn about each other. Wikimedians believe in truth and education, collaboration and freedom. You may be one of us and not even realize it yet.

This is who we are. And that matters.

Source: In 2016, the United Nations World Tourism Organization reported that annual travel had grown to approximately 1186 million international tourists. Considered as a fraction of global population at 7.4 billion people this it equates to 16% or 1 in 6 people.