So are you a tourist or a traveler?

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We use the term ‘tourist’ or ‘traveler’ almost interchangeably, but both these words have different implications to some people in the travel community. What makes someone a better traveler than someone else? Do experiences not count if there is no 200 kms hitchhike involved through a troubled country? Does booking a room make you ‘not extreme enough’ to be a credible traveler?  Although one can’t be put in a box, there are some factors discussed below which highlights the differences between the two.


Flexibility 

If you are someone who has a fixed plan for the trip and slightest last minute changes in ‘the plan’ or a sudden road block causes you to have a nervous breakdown, you are probably a tourist. However, if a blocked road does not frazzle you and you are open for detours down the little-known back roads and you go with the flow, you are probably a traveler. As long as you reach your destination, it does not bother you what road you have taken.

Comfort

A tourist is someone who would typically pre-book their hotel room months in advance and will not compromise on the level of comfort no matter where you they going. A traveler will, however, be open to stay in any hotel, BnB, home stay they can get a room for the night, or will carry their own tent. Comfort is not the most important thing for them.

Sight-seeing

A tourist will probably make check-list of all the major attractions and will make sure to visit each one of them, as advised by the internet. However, a traveler does not really have a strict itinerary and is someone who will talk to the local people and find out interesting places to see or eateries to visit, which will probably not be listed in any website


Purpose

Tourists typically have a mission in mind when they travel. If you visit the Grand Canyon congregate at the South Rim, snap pictures, and leave within hours and feel you have served the purpose and ticked it off your list, you are probably a tourist. However, if you are more of the type to take it all in in person as opposed to clicking ten pictures, you are a traveler.

Adjustability

If you are easily irked if things don’t go as planned, the waiter got your order wrong because of language difference, or your laundry service did not arrive on time, you are a tourist. But if such things slide off you and you concentrate more on the trip than your needs, you are probably a traveler.