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What's the difference between a traveler and a tourist? What are you?

What's the difference between a traveler and a tourist? What are you?

Old Jun 27th, 2010, 01:36 PM
  #21  
 
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Adu, you say so eloquently what I experience in my travels.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 01:41 PM
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Thank you saige.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 01:44 PM
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"hiking alone in Nepal or India or another remote area, "

Yup...and how many people do stuff like that?
agree with Adu... most people are both

Thesaurus
tourist
noun
the islands teem with tourists vacationer, traveler, sightseer, visitor, backpacker, globetrotter, day tripper, out-of-towner. antonym local.


Thesaurus
traveler
noun
thousands of travelers were left stranded tourist, vacationer, sightseer, visitor, globe-trotter, backpacker; pilgrim, wanderer, drifter, nomad, migrant; passenger, commuter, fare.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 01:48 PM
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"This is what she told me, "I used to be a traveler now I am a tourist". Perhaps the popular perception is that a tourist is someone who travels with groups, or along predictable paths."

I don't think it's about traveling with groups. But I think you hit on something with "predictable paths." At least that's my idea of a traveler. They don't travel with a rigid itinerary and they don't freak out when problems arise.

I have a friend who spent three months in Europe several years ago. She had one suitcase and traveled by train, got off and found a room and stayed as long as she wanted before moving on to another city and finding a room. She met people along the way but never had a firm plan of where she would stay or where she would go next. I don't know if I could do that.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 01:51 PM
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I am an explorer. That makes me a better person than a traveller. And a way better person than a tourist.

Go ahead Adu ... beat that.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 02:03 PM
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How about visitor? On our recent trip to Italy, where we have had the fortune to visit several times in the last decade, I found myself thinking that perhaps we were now visitors, and not tourists. But then I had another glass of wine, and decided not to think too hard about the semantics. It's more about the attitude with which one tours, travels, visits, I think.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 02:06 PM
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well since most of my trips to France were to stay or visit friends across the country, I guess by socialtraveler, I'm a vistor. I like that!
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 02:20 PM
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In general, in the UK you do not want to describe yourself as a traveler. "Travelers" were hippies and ex-hippies who live in groups in old vans and caravans, sometimes as squatters. Last I heard, they had somewhat the same reputation as gypsies, but with drug use added. But maybe usage has changed.

It will be interesting to see the responses when the UK signs on to this Forum about 0200 US time.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 03:51 PM
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I am an explorer. That makes me a better person than a traveller. And a way better person than a tourist.

Go ahead Adu ... beat that.
_______________________

I'm a globe trekking fool who knows the difference between Pashto and Urdu, who knows how slice fugu so it will not kill you, can charm the most venal customs agent but cries like a baby on a bus tour of Anne Frank's house.

Ha!
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 03:56 PM
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I travelled the Amazon by canoe, which I had carved from a single log, using only a small hatchet stolen from Walmart. I survived on food shot with a bow and arrow, and piranha fish captured by dangling my foot in the water.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 05:15 PM
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Well - I'm a tourist - and

take public transit in major cities - or walk
eat at a lot of "local" restaurants and cafes that don;t appear in guide books (although we usually do one special meal in each city - yes often with a michelin *)
have never had a private guide
have never had a private driver (except on business - and in from the airport with a ton of luggage)

But I do need AC and a comfy hotel with room service (but we eat only breakfast there, or perhaps a drink in the bar). It's a vacation, not the Bataan death march - and why should I be less comfortable there - or have a lower standard of living - than do at home?
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 05:53 PM
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nytraveler, my place is not great so I like to stay at a place that is nicer, if only for a night
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 06:21 PM
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Adu, You're welcome.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 07:31 PM
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Peter_S_Aus

Now I know why you limp!! ;-)
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 09:21 PM
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They're both the same in that both tourists and travelers are "guests" in someone else's country, city, or town whether it is overseas or in one's own country. Happy Travels!
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 09:27 PM
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Good description, Guenmai. I have never thought about it but I guess in the back of my mind I have always considered myself a visitor. But guest is a very good description and would help those that tend to forget their manners to remember that they are guest.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 09:48 PM
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Don't know. Don't care. I just like to go to out of the continental U.S. and hang out. I look at stuff. I walk around a lot. I've seen every museum in the civilized world and don't want to go into another one.
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 11:03 PM
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Peter_S_ Is that all? I raise your measly piranha. pah!

I travelled the majestic Mangoky River by raft, which I single handedly built from a baobab trees, hacked down by the use of a nail file, strapping the logs together with the carcase of pythons I had killed with my bare hands. I survived only on water collected from the morning dew by my specially designed leaf hydration distiller and ate thumb nail sized scorpions caught by getting them to duel with each other in a gladiatorial gala.

Beat that!
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Old Jun 27th, 2010, 11:16 PM
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This is not my own work, but ......

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.

Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat 400.

My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me. I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations with the CIA.

I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid.

On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prize-winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin.

I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.
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Old Jun 28th, 2010, 12:20 AM
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I have decided to rebel against the word 'traveler'. People who need to use that label are mostly just snobs who are unhappy with the word 'tourist.'

When I am traveling, I think it is great to see the tourist sights and have all sorts of other experiences as well. 'Travelers' give the impression of not having any goals other than wandering at random. In the 21st century, give me a break! Nothing is random anymore, you are not going to fit in with local culture and you are not going to discover anything that hasn't been discovered yet -- you can see all about it on Google. 'Traveling' can therefore be considered a waste of resources by people who have little respect for others, since they disrupt local people's lives in places where random visitors are not really required or desired. If people like that came to dawdle in your own town, you would probably call them 'drifters' and want them to leave as quickly as possible.
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