With the invention of planes and ocean liners, it has become remarkably easier to travel the world and explore all these different places. People can go from the US to China in a day, or spend the night on a plane and end up in Europe.
As such, I am a huge supporter of travel. I think that everyone, no matter what their situation, needs to take the time to go to another country and learn about another culture first hand. It's a valuable experience that I have heard few people regret (and we won't go into the person I know who regrets it).
It's an amazing experience, no matter where you go, and learning about another culture and their problems can certainly give you a whole new perspective on your own life. I mean, how many people would be able to complain about drinking US tap water after going to a country where the tap water will make you sick? Very few. On the flip side, how many people, after visiting Europe, would see the advantage in smaller cars or better public transportation?
Yet, travel can also cause a number of different problems. I am sure you all have heard of various diseases contracted by people, and then the CDC frantically looking to who might have been on a plane with them, and thus be at risk for the disease. With the ability to go so far so fast, this makes it really easy to spread infectious diseases far beyond your home town. A sick businessman who does business outside of the country could easily spread some disease from Asia to Europe to the US and back again within a week.
This was a particular concern when SARS came around. One person infected hopping on a plane could infect everyone on that plane. If each then had a different connecting flight, they could infect everyone on those planes, as well as people in their final destination. Soon enough, you have so many people infected so quickly that it's simply a pandemic. Isolation is the key to preventing those, and our travel isn't very conducive to isolation.
The ability to travel so far so fast also makes it easy for various plant and animal species to hop on for the ride and have a population explosion in a new area. This is a major problem with some species, such as the zebra muscle, which travels on ships with their water load. Once in a new location, there are often no predators to keep the population in check, and the species can then explode.
Hawaii also has this problem with various species, so each flight coming in has to be thoroughly cleaned in order to prevent an infestation with some invasive species (I think slugs are their biggest problem).
So, should travel be abolished? No, but certain precautions have to be taken if we want to continue to do what we do... If you're sick, please don't fly anywhere or go on some cruise ship or anything, especially if you suspect it might be something serious (like... I dunno... Tuberculosis). This is also why there are restrictions against bringing plants and fruits back into this country, because we don't want some invasive species to destroy our environments here.
Just keep these in mind next time you travel, even if it's something as simply as driving to another state. The seeds of many plants will likely hitch a ride on your car.
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