This was published 8 years ago
Tourist or traveller: What is the difference?
Feeling superior about your trek through the Andes? Please don't, writes Ben Groundwater.
A couple wander through Camden Stables Market in London.Credit: Getty Images
There is plenty that's great about the world of travel. For all that's wrong with it, however, consider the manufactured distinction between "travellers" and "tourists".
That is a division some people like to draw – usually those who want to believe they fall into the former category. Few would proudly proclaim, "Well, I'm a tourist, not a traveller" as they pull out their selfie stick for yet another Facebook profile shot, but there are plenty who like to tell everyone the opposite.
It's a badge of honour to consider yourself a traveller. You can separate yourself from the masses if you're more than just a tourist. You can be convinced that you're learning, and interacting, and giving back to the world if you move around it as a "traveller" rather than a person who just goes to an all-inclusive resort and drinks cocktails from coconuts.
You want to do silly tourist things on your holiday? There's nothing wrong with that.Credit: iStock
Of course, this is a complete delusion. For evidence, check out Visa's recent campaign encouraging people to tag their travel experiences with "#NotATourist". You do this, of course, while uploading your content and knowledge to the Visa database, and proving that you're a proper traveller who'd never stoop to doing anything a tourist would do. While taking part in a campaign for Visa.
It's pretty safe to say that once a notion like this has become a corporate ad campaign, it's jumped the shark. Anyone hashtagging "NotATourist" for Visa sounds like they have probably strayed into the opposite territory.
But that's not the point. The thing is, you can call yourself whatever you want when you get on that plane and head overseas. Travel – this thing we all do and love – is not a competition. And yet there are still people who will start considering they're better than others on the road, or that they're doing travel in a fundamentally better way.
It's ridiculous to claim that one is better than the other.
I have a problem with that. Travel is so completely subjective, so personal, and (should be) so devoid of a competitive aspect that there is no reason to have to believe that you do it in a way that's superior to other people. Or to aspire to do it in any other way than you feel comfortable.
There are different styles of travel, for sure. There are those people who just want to relax when they go on holidays. They want to lie around and read a book. Or be led through the highlights by a tour guide. Or go on a cruise. Or visit 10 countries in a fortnight and say they've "done" them all. If that's the way you want to travel, there should be no shame. It's your choice.
Meanwhile, there are also those who seek to avoid the popular destinations and sights, who would rather trek around the back streets of a little-visited city than battle with the hordes at the Eiffel Towers of the world. They might spend their holiday doing volunteer work, or taking a language course, or seeking out dangerous or unstable or unpopular destinations.
These are vastly different approaches to travel, with vastly different motivations behind them. But it's ridiculous to claim that one is better than the other.
Plenty will, however. Anyone who's been a backpacker will be used to the games of one-upmanship that go on in hostel lounges and bars the world over, where people compete to see who has slummed it in the dirtiest accommodation, or who has had the most "authentic" local experience, or who's eaten the weirdest street food.
Everyone has a guidebook, but they still like to think they're getting off the beaten track. No one wants to entertain the notion that they might be a plain old tourist, that they might just being going around doing the same things everyone else has done, and seeing the same things everyone else has seen.
Other travellers, meanwhile, might point out that by sitting in a hostel lounge eating packet noodles, you're really not getting the most out of the country you're supposed to be exploring. Or that by hanging around with other travellers you're not properly experiencing your host destination.
All of this stuff is crazy. If you want to sit by a pool and while away your holiday with a book, you should be allowed to do it. If you want to get drunk with mates for your whole trip, you should be allowed to do that as well. If you want to volunteer at a school, or sit on a cruise ship, or wander through museums, or eat dodgy street food, you should be allowed to do all of it.
There is only one way you should travel, and that is your own way. The label other people put on it makes no difference.
b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au
See also: Travel is about 'doing' not 'seeing'
See also: Science prove travelling is the secret to happiness
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