Can someone explain to me the difference between a tourist
and a traveller. Surely as soon as we leave our homes we
become tourists. Why do people travel around with a chip on
their shoulder thinking that they are different to everyone
else.
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There are different styles to travelling - those that make
an earnest effort to learn language, customs, and feel at
home in their new place may more accurately be called
travllers, and those that are more interested in site seeing
and enjoying themselves are fall more under the definition
of tourist. THe basic differentiation is in the ration of
how much you give to how much you take. Now stop asking
inflaming questions!
People who consider themselves to be "travellers" are on the
whole self absorbed, focussed on getting a cheap deal and
looking cool and pseudo-native. In reality there is NO
difference, - tourists who go to India are tourists, even if
they have an interesting conversation with a waiter or wash
leppers at Mother Theresas, they will all go back to their
consumeristic middle class existence in the west and tell
quaint anecdotes of how they roughed it in big bad India.
There is a conveyor belt of these "travellers" blundering
through the tourist ghettos every year. They do make a
financial contribution to India, though this contribution is
often extracted under duress but compared with the
stereotype tourist the ammount of $ brought in is small for
the impact on local life. Inflaming?? Nah just exploring a
few home truths,.
Boy, Dave you sound like a fun guy - want to go travelling
together sometime?
If one day Dave you manage to pull your head out of your ass
or take off your blinders, you will see that lots of people
in India travel off the conveyor belt.
are you on or off the conveyor belt if you have access to
email?
will know the difference by looking at the laundry line.
The tourist's boxer shorts will be white and the
traveller's soiled.
Sounds like q is saying that travellers give little money
and take much in and tourists give much money and take less
of what travellers take in. Whatever that is? Why ask? Just
Go. Would a traveller be upset if a tourist obtained
heartfelt joy from the mystery that is India?
Jimbo,
Sorry, I am not trying to ask inflaming questions but I
think it is a valid one. If I want to be classed as a
traveller does q think that I shouldn't go and visit the
Taj or take a camel ride into the Thar desert? and the last
bit of q's post suggests that tourists enjoy themselves more
well I must be a tourist then because I'll be fucked if I am
going to travel anywhere and not enjoy it!
Same damn thing, although tourists are often more up front
about knowing little or nothing about where they are.
Words are just things you make lies out of-- wouldn't put
much store in 'em.
A traveller has no fixed plans and is not intend on
arriving .
Lao Tzu (570-490 BC)
********
Travellers don't know where the are going,
tourists don't know where they've been .
Paul Theroux
thing is for sure. The more time you spend roughing it in
India the less tourist will be left in you. That I think
even Dave would agree with. A little more lime juice...if
you don't mind, please.
Let me explain myself a little better with an example - When
I was in Varanasi I met an English guy who had been there
for years, spoke excellent Hindi, had tons of Indian friends
who thought he was the cat's ass, and still travelled around
and did interesting things -- it would be hard to put him in
the same category as as a visitor that bumbles around for
two weeks, sees some sites and then goes home, largely
unaware (but unaware that they're unaware) of what just
transpired.
That guy worked really hard to learn language and fit in,
but at the same time he was a Londoner through and through.
You can imagine the rewards in terms of satisfaction in
meeting friends and seeing close up the very best sides of
Indian culture.
The difference between being a traveller and tourist isn't
really matter of enjoying yourself or not, but how you enjoy
yourself. Don't trust anyone who believes that all
foreigners' travels are a product of the cookie cutter, as
they are the worst of all - the close minded tourist who
hates other tourists. I think first off you should stop
worrying about this artificial construct 'traveller/tourist'
as one is not better than the other - just different, in
their approach, costs in term of time and commitment, and
rewards. Understand?
TRAVELLER: ONE WHO TRAVELS,AS SIMPLE AS THAT.REMEMBER IT
CAN BE FOR ANY REASON.
TOURIST : ONE WHO TRAVELS AGAIN ,BUT THIS TIME IT's ONLY
FOR VISITING & ENJOYMENT.
"HOPE IT's CLEAR NOW".
Tourist: a person who travels for pleasure
Traveller: a person who travels
Pseud : artificial or pretentious person
Source Collins English Dictionary, [ that's a book by the
way]
its semantics - same shit in different bottles
travellers are people too pretentious to call themselves
tourists
Travelers have time to do and see what they want. Tourists
have to go home at some predefined time that isn't far in
the future. I'll be going to India for a mere three weeks
this fall. I'll be a tourist, with that 'got to get back
to Mumbai by Friday' feeling. As a traveler, I'd get back
when I was ready to move on. I'd plan a few days at the
beach and stay three weeks.
However, as a tourist I think I appreciate the drama and
contrasts more than I do as a traveler. After a year in
Southeast Asia, it felt almost like home, and I noticed the
differences between Penang and Nong Khai more than the
differences between Penang and home. I prefer traveling,
but I have friends who wouldn't be happy in a place that
had started to feel familiar and comfortable, who love the
drama of the contrast.
This year, since three weeks is the maximum I can get away,
I plan to relish the contrasts and be a tourist. I'll be a
traveler again some other year.
Tourists and travellers the same? Nothing truer could be
further from the false! Beleive that my friend, because I
am right.
There's a line in "The Sheltering Sky" by Paul Bowles which
is also used in the Bertolucci movie of the same title. A
tourist is someone who goes with the intention of returning
home sometime soon, whereas a traveler is someone who might
travel for years, and never return at all. Or words to that
effect. Book or movie; it's a marvelous tale that many LP &
Thorn Tree readers will enjoy.