Personally I think we should forget the argument Tourist V Traveller as it just reeks of ‘Im better and your not’ and argue are you sustainable (environment, Culture, Economically) when you travel or are you not? Just cause you travel independently off the beaten track doesnt mean you are a better person at travelling.

One other way I like to look at this topic is to define the term tourist as used by governments to measure people moving whilst traveller is the romantic notion.

cheers

For example, someone who takes a motorbike, a bycle or using public transportation travels by land from France to Vietnam, crossing south east asia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, etc… can be considered a traveler. This people visit hundreads of unspoilt places because of the route they are doing. They get to meet people who has seen only a few foreigns and really get in touch with the culture.

Someone who travels by plane to acumulate miles, who goes to Unesco heritage sites and stays in nice guest houses or hotels it’s more a tourist than a traveler, no matter for how long he/she does that.

That’s my humble opininon I’ve been traveling (last year I was 11 months around Asia) sometimes as a tourist sometimes as a traveler, I’m affraid that much more as a tourist.

And I can honestly say, I don’t feel much like those people who take packaged group bus tours and then say they’ve “done France.”

On the other hand, when my husband and I went to Ireland last month, even though we set our own schedule and stayed away from places that catered to group tours and learned something about the country beforehand and tried to chat up locals in the pubs, I ended up feeling I’d had a pretty superficial experience of the country. I really felt like a tourist, not a traveler.

Well at least I’m not going around saying I’ve “done Ireland.” So there is that.

A traveler is about people, their family, how they live, eat, cook, laugh, sing, love and cry.

A tourist doesn’t know where he’s been, and a traveller doesn’t know where he’s going.

Travellers ride the subway, tourists experience the subway.

The difference is probably more about novelty – tourists seem to do things (sometimes absurd) in a city or country because they are a ‘must-do’ whereas travellers seem to integrate and do things because they’re a part of everyday life.

Tourists seem to have a checklist, whereas travellers seem to have a purpose or a reason for being, other than ticking a box.

Just an observation…

” The man who comes back through the Door in the wall will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less sel-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance…..” – Aldous Huxley- (The Doors of Percerption)