wes fowler

A few years ago, in a moment of whimsy, I posed a question asking the distinction, if any, between a tourist and a traveler. It prompted a number of responses ranging from a tourist being defined as a travel neophyte laden with maps, guidebooks and cameras scurrying through 18 countries in 14 days to the definition of a traveler as merely being a tourist with an ego, an attitude and an air of superiority. The tourist prepares for Europe with Rick Steves; the traveler’s visit to Rome is preceded by engrossing weeks devoted to Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. After ruminating for a number of years, I’ve come to the conclusion that regardless of our experience with and extent of our travels, whether the upcoming trip to Paris is our first or fifteenth, we are and will always be essentially strangers in a strange land. Hot water faucets in French bath tubs marked “C”, closet sized rooms in Parisian hotels, curtainless showers throughout Europe, Gray Swiss cows parading through Swiss villages wearing floral headdresses, gourmet menus featuring stomach linings (tripe) and thymus glands (sweetbreads), ruby red beers in Brugge, recorded messages in London’s tube stations warning us to “Mind the Gap!” all are constant and ever-present reminders that we are in strange environments. How strange is a city such as Madrid, asleep at three in the afternoon, vibrantly alive with its strolling window-shoppers at one in the morning. How odd the newstands and kiosks of London or Paris with their vast number of daily city newspapers in contrast to the few we find in American cities. How enigmatic the size of the city, town? country? of “Ausfahrt” in Germany. How puzzling that young Netherlanders fluently speak idiomatic American English rather than that of their North Sea neighbors. So, strangers, what have you found to be truly strange and how have you coped with it? With humor; with frustration; with animosity; with “Ugly Americanisms”?; with a laissez-faire attitude; with wonderment and awe? What say you? And, if you’re truly courageous, ponder what is the difference between the tourist and the traveler and let us know that distinction! <BR>

orgy7

a traveler is a free spirit not bound by much. a traveler adapts too his seroundings and engages in new and varied once. <BR><BR>

Eric

Good God you said it wonderfully, I'm not sure I can add anything to what you just said.<BR><BR>I just try to blend in and observe the differences around me while on vacation.<BR><BR> At home I get caught up in my day to day world and a vacation is to get me as far away from that world as I can get. <BR><BR>Have a nice day

x

Tourists are there to see, travelers come to learn.

Nance

I think a tourist is there to snap a picture so he can say &quot;I was there&quot;, then runs to another destination. A tourist goes to see famous artworks so he can say &quot;I have seen it&quot;, then runs to another church, to say &quot;the churches are all the same, I am churched out.&quot;<BR><BR>The traveler will have researched these same artworks and when looking at them contrasts and compares what they have learned about the artist, the era, etc.<BR>The traveler will have read up on the sculpture and the church and will have noted some details of interest. <BR><BR>It is just that some people are thinkers and some are just doers.

Marilyn

x, that is lovely and I think captures the essence. I will keep it and quote it. Did you come up with it? If I had, I wouldn't be posting anonymously.

BOB THE NAVIGATOR

Wes, You are in rare from--2 fingers and all. You should be a travel writer, but I guess that is what you are.

Dave

When in doubt, ask Webster.<BR><BR>Tourist: one that makes a tour for pleasure OR CULTURE.<BR><BR>Traveler: one that goes on a trip or journey.<BR><BR>So while all tourists are travelers, not all travelers are tourists. TOURIST implies that the journey itself is the motivation, while TRAVELER merely refers anyone making a trip, quite possibly oblivious to what is seen.<BR><BR>I for one am a tourist, and proud of it. (Hopefully an informed, inquisitive, considerate tourist, but a tourist none the less.)

Susan

To me a tourist is, as a previous poster put it, a person who goes to another place to see (and in some cases add it to a list of places &quot;to see&quot; ), a visitor (my preference to traveler) goes to experience a place. For me it nothing beats that brief moment when I can imagine what it would be like to actually live in the place I'm visiting, when for just that moment I feel in tune with my surroundings. Whether it is walking down 5th Ave in NYC and having a tourist ask me for directions because I look (or act or appear to be) a New Yorker, or sitting in sidewalk cafe in Paris drinking coffee and painting a sketch of the buildings or standing in farmhouse kitchen in Tuscany making dinner with the fresh ingredients bought at local markets. When I'm no longer just looking, but experiencing.

cool

Interesting post. The word tourist has taken on such negative connotations that we assume a traveler is preferred, but think about it. A traveler is someone who is merely passing through a place on their way to a single destination. A tourist, although possibly laden with cameras, maps and guidebooks, come to see the culture and learn about it. Is it not possible to be a combination of the two?

Nikki

Many people here seem to use the word tourist to denote a person less sophisticated than oneself. I am sure, however, that most of those people in shorts, with cameras around their necks, are learning a great deal in their travels. Who could possibly not learn a great deal in their travels, absorbing the sights and sounds so eloquently summarized by Wes? <BR><BR>The maps, cameras and guidebooks help the traveler learn and record the voyage, bring the traveler to the most interesting places, provide an outlet for personal creativity. I admit to bringing all of those with me. <BR><BR>If travel teaches us anything, I hope it teaches us to be more accepting of the wide variety of people we encounter both abroad and at home. Even of the tourists from our own country who experience things differently than we do ourselves.

Wallace

<BR><BR>Can one be both a tourist and a traveler? Or will these dynamics collide with one another and result in a nightmarish kind of lack of productivity of travel?<BR><BR>The tourists sees things as a child. The traveler washes his hands frequently.<BR><BR>Can there be a blending? And even more important can they coexist?<BR><BR>The tourist asks... is the train on time?<BR>The traveler inquires where on the station platform is a good place to avoid pigeons.<BR><BR>Unlike the tourist who is always dwelling on the destination, the traveler, in his experience born of sophistication thinks only of where to have dinner.<BR><BR>The tourist is caught up in things foreign to him whereas the traveler is the culture.<BR><BR>Can we then say that the tourist is, in clever masqurade, the traveler..that you can take the traveler out of the tourist but you can never take tourist out of the traveler? Can we? Hmmm?<BR><BR>I am reminded of the words of Romulex of 200 AD concerning those with venturing forth tendencies:<BR><BR>&quot;Go, oh restless foot. Go and seek. So that one day you may return to hearth and home to munch a raisin cake by fire and family once again only to roll out of the sack the next morning at 6 to begin the cycle anew&quot;.

wayne

To me,<BR>A tourist is someone who sees everything but sees nothing. He captures every scenery with his camera. He eats home food when abroad.He hangs around his countrymen for security.He takes the tour bus on the fastest route.He believes in efficiency and getting the most out of his travel money.<BR><BR>A traveller is someone who sees something out of nothing. He captures sceneries with his memories.He wants to eat foreign food.He wants to blend with the locals to learn from a foreign culture. He often takes the road less travelled.He believes in serendipity.

happyal

i am a tourist. i get 3 weeks of vacation a year and i travel two of them.i usualy go one and two place take<BR>lots of pictures and try act like a local as much as possible.<BR>my grandfather was a traveler for last 30 years of his life he would travel 3 or 4 mounts a year, he only know where the starting point was and the rest was mystery to my grandmother, who secratly i think she loved the adventure,they were fluant in 7 difrent<BR>languges and many more they patch together.<BR>someday i hope to be a traveler!!

european traveller

I'll put it this way. <BR>Maybe a little too simple, but still not all that wrong:<BR><BR>A tourist = a gourmand <BR>Eager to see as much as possible in as little time as possible. Been there, done that... let's move on.<BR><BR>A traveller = a gourmet <BR>Prefers to see less, takes his/her time and enjoys details.<BR>

dan woodlief

I still think it is hard to draw a definite distinction between the two terms, but I think Wes has again beautifully defined the difference in philosophies. I think &quot;tourist&quot; versus &quot;explorer&quot; or &quot;adventurer&quot; is more appropriate, but of course most of us are exploring things that are already quite discovered. <BR><BR>Personally, my journeys are varied. Sometimes I am out mostly to explore and learn, both with my mind and camera. At other times, fun is the main point of the trip, but I don't know that I am capable of just going somewhere to goof off and have fun. I am constantly trying to learn something, with the possible exception of a day at an amusement park.

pedro

My Government has a Department of Tourism and doesn't have a Department of Travelers.<BR><BR>May be Tourists are more valuable than Travellers<BR><BR>

xxx

<BR><BR>This may raise a few hackles among the Fodors crowd, especially those who fancy themselves travelers.<BR><BR>How about...<BR><BR>A tourist is someone who goes on a &quot;tour&quot;; i.e. most things are planned in advance, either by a tour group or by the tourist.<BR><BR>A traveler is someone who just goes, having few if any plans in advance.<BR><BR>

one

Ok, I'll buy the tourist/planning bit, but a traveler is still just someone who travels.<BR><BR>Someone who &quot;just goes, having few if any plans in advance&quot; is a wanderer.

orgy7

OK. all I know is that if you take an escourted tour.. you are a tourist... <BR><BR>I wonder what kind of responses would you get if you posted this on the lonely planet site. I think it would be totaly different.. <BR><BR>