A geography book does not let you experience what the air smells like on the beach of the Mediterranean in Barcelona. It doesn’t let you experience the taste of the coldest, clearest water dipped straight from a mountain stream while hiking outside of Brunnen. A book won’t impart to you the gravity to be felt when placing your hands on the fence links at Auschwitz in Poland.
And yes, History teachers across the US teach about the horrors of German concentration camps, and travel agents all over the country sing praises of Spanish beaches and the Swiss Alps. None of them have a clue of what they speak, but hey, it sure sounds good to folks who don’t know any better, and sure sounds vapid to folks which do.