The Difference Between a Traveler and a Tourist

Isn’t a ‘Trav­eler’ the same as a ‘Tourist’?

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much dif­fer­ence between a ‘Trav­eler” and a ‘Tourist’. Both pack their bags and leave the com­forts of home to explore the world. Both are vaca­tion­ers, trekking off to dif­fer­ent places to expe­ri­ence the sights, sounds and tastes of a vari­ety of loca­tions, cam­eras in hand, send­ing post­card wish­ing friends and fam­ily mem­bers they were here.

But when you think about them for a few min­utes, sub­tle (and not so sub­tle) dif­fer­ences begin to become apparent.

A tourist heads to a des­ti­na­tion. The typ­i­cal des­ti­na­tion is usu­ally one that reminds the tourist of ‘home’ in one way or another. Usu­ally the strangers they meet in hotels and restau­rants are other tourists from around the world; the food they eat has a famil­iar taste to it; and the shops, well, the shops are there spe­cially for them and filled with spe­cial items that tourists like to buy.

A trav­eler enjoys the jour­ney. And the jour­ney gen­er­ally takes trav­el­ers to places where locals live, eat, work and play. To places where very few, if any, tourists go. Where the lan­guage is unfa­mil­iar, and the tastes, smells and sounds are new and excit­ing. Trav­el­ers learn about dif­fer­ent cul­tures, and as a result, are changed by them. The pho­tos are mem­o­ries of expe­ri­ences they have had — not just places they have been.

Are you a trav­eler through life — or just a tourist??

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