What Is Travel Art?

Its Meaning, Subjects and Stories

When people think of travel art, they usually picture an old poster of Paris, a skyline of New York or a random map covered in pins. All of those count as travel art for sure, don’t get me wrong, but they only show part of it.

For me, travelling changes what I notice. One day, I may be exploring a local market and see the way fruit is stacked harmoniously on the stall or wandering around a supermarket, thinking about how different the products are from the ones I am used to at home. Random details like an animal or an ordinary street say just as much about a place as the most famous landmarks.

In this guide, I’ll explain what travel art actually means, the many subjects it can include and how to choose a print that you genuinely want.

Travel art is defined by a connection to a place, not a particular style. It can be a photograph, painting, illustration, collage, typographic or abstract print. It can be any artistic medium, and it can feel traditional or modern, playful or quiet, or even chaotic and quirky. The style of the print can change, but the link to travel will still remain.

It also doesn’t need to document an entire journey. Sometimes, the starting point is a small detail noticed for a few seconds. For example, from my own travels around Asia, you will often hear giant Asian toads singing from drains, swamps and unfamiliar places. They are noticeable enough to become iconic to my experience and thus become a subject for a print.

The travel connection may sit in the origin of the idea more than being obvious in the finished piece. A colourful tropical fruit print may simply look lively on a kitchen wall, even if the idea began in Phetchaburi, Thailand, because they are the number one exporter of toddy palm fruit in the country.

There is also some crossover with cultural art, especially when a piece uses traditions, beliefs, symbols or a local’s way of life. The two are not identical, though. Travel art can be based on a personal memory or visual observation without trying to represent an entire culture.

There is a familiar tradition of travel art being built around the more generic subjects, like city skylines, beaches, monuments, railway routes and vintage tourism posters. You will see these a lot on Etsy. The Library of Congress travel poster collection shows how destinations, natural scenery and transport were presented to potential travellers.

As commercial printing and mass travel expanded, the V&A’s history of the poster traces how nineteenth-century printing helped posters become powerful public advertising. Railways, shipping lines and airlines used them to sell destinations.

That history still shapes expectations, but I think that modern travel art can focus on what happens after somebody arrives. Think about why you visit a place: the street food culture, the animals that you can find only in a certain part of the world. How do you get there? How do you feel when you are there? These details are missing from tourism adverts.

This isn’t a mathematical formula. A piece may begin with something that was witnessed or a cultural reference. It may be a fact that you learnt along the way or a personal memory.

The strongest ideas usually come from ordinary places: the tangled mess of cables you find around Thailand, the hustle of ticket vendors in Laos or seven people on a moped. These details can make a place feel distinct.

My Thailand monk-and-cables poster is a good example: a Buddhist monk in orange beneath a mess of overhead wires. It is calm and chaotic at once, and familiar to many people who have travelled around Thailand.

Travel art can use national animals, patterns, religious objects, ceremonies, food and other references connected to real people and histories. UNESCO's explanation of intangible cultural heritage is a useful reminder that culture also lives in practices, knowledge and expressions carried by communities - not only in monuments and museum objects.

The Thai Royal White Elephant print works in this way. It is decorative, but the subject also has a specific connection to Thai royal history and belief. That gives the artwork another layer without turning it into a history lesson.

Travel can change how a familiar subject is understood. An animal may have local symbolism. A colour may have a ceremonial use. An ingredient may be tied to a region or everyday routine. Research can change the direction of the artwork and stop a cultural reference becoming empty decoration.

Travel artwork may connect to somewhere a person visited, lived or grew up. It can recall a meal, family background, a journey or somebody they travelled with. A simple food print can bring back more than a skyline ever could.

The viewer's reason does not have to match mine. A Thai fruit print might represent Thailand, a favourite food or simply the right green for a kitchen. All of those are valid reasons to enjoy it.

No. A genuine source of inspiration gives an artwork substance, but nobody should need to pass a test before they are allowed to like it.

Colour, composition, humour and subject are all good reasons to choose a print. Sometimes the story creates the connection. Sometimes the visual appeal comes first and the story becomes an interesting extra later. Sometimes a person simply likes elephants, lemons, noodles or a particular shade of blue.

That balance is central to CITTRA Collective. I want the prints to work in a real home while still having an honest starting point for anyone who wants to know more.

Travel art is a broad category, and the boundaries overlap. One print can be food art, cultural art and travel art at the same time. These are some of the most common types.

Travel artwork can keep a place present in daily life, represent somebody's background, recall a journey or simply introduce colour, humour and an unusual subject. Because there is usually a reason behind the image, it can also start conversations without needing to explain everything itself.

A collection can grow over time. One piece might represent a trip, another a family connection and another something chosen because it looks good beside the rest. Nostalgia is only one reason. Curiosity, identity and decoration count too.

• Memory: a visual reminder of a place, meal or person.

• Connection: a link to family background, culture or somewhere once called home.

• Curiosity: a subject or story that encourages people to look closer.

• Personality: an alternative to safe, mass-produced wall decor.

• Colour and composition: a practical way to shape how a room feels.

The best place to start is not the latest interiors trend. Start with the connection, the room and what you genuinely want to keep looking at.

1. Begin with the connection. Think about a country, journey, cultural reference or subject you keep returning to. That is usually a stronger starting point than choosing whatever happens to be popular.

2. Decide how you want the room to feel. Bright food art can energise a kitchen. A spacious composition can suit a calm bedroom. Humour can stop a room feeling too serious.

3. Choose the subject before the trend. Trends can suggest colours and layouts, but the subject is what you will keep seeing. Pick something you would still enjoy when the trend has passed.

4. Look at the colours already in the room. A print can repeat one colour, create contrast or deliberately stand apart. Everything does not need to match perfectly.

5. Choose the right scale and layout. One large print creates a focal point, a pair can balance a narrow wall and a gallery wall can combine different places and memories. Smaller prints work well on shelves, desks and awkward gaps.

For practical help with measurements, framing, colour and layouts, read my full guide how to buy travel art.

Not every CITTRA print begins in the same way. Some start with an object, meal, animal, pattern or everyday moment I see while travelling. Sometimes the shape or colour interests me first. Other times it is the story or even just the randomness.

Other designs begin with a subject I discover and research - perhaps an animal with a cultural role or an ingredient tied to local life. What I learn can become the reason the print exists.

I then work out how to translate the idea into a contemporary piece. It should not have to look like a postcard. It needs to stand on its own through its composition, colour and subject.

The monk and cables came from a Thai street observation and sadly they are actually in the process of bringing these cables underground, so I guess there is a sort of memorialisation in this print too. The Royal White Elephant from cultural history and the fish sauce poster from everyday packaging. They followed different routes, but each stays connected to a real place.

Sometimes the story is obvious and sometimes it sits quietly behind the design. The aim is not to make every object sound profound. It is to notice what makes a place distinct, then turn that into something worth putting on a wall.

Travel art means everything to me because it is a way of recording the real things and genuine experiences I come across on the road. It helps me hold onto those moments, but it also gives me a way to share them with my friends, family and anyone else in the world who has an interest in the places, people and details behind the artwork.

Posters and prints do not have to be the same generic pieces repeated across online marketplaces. They do not all need to follow the same trends until everything starts to look tired. They can be new, unusual and decorative. They can experiment with subjects and styles that people may not have seen before. At CITTRA Collective, I am willing to push posters in different directions and see where those ideas lead.