When it comes to visiting foreign lands and taking trips abroad, do you consider yourself a Traveller or a Tourist?
As a self-confessed ‘traveller’, I believe that the only difference between being a tourist and a traveller is down to the type of holidays/journeys we take, but after reading the comments made on a recent UK newspaper article, it seems that not everyone feels the same!
“A traveller is just a tourist who doesn’t want to pay more than 50p for a night’s accommodation” wrote one reader, while another added “A traveller is an arrogant person who does exactly the same things as a tourist but with a smug, condescending and patronising approach to everyone he/she meets. So I am absolutely a tourist” – Wow!
Other readers made less controversial comments such as “different strokes for different folks.” In general, a “tourist” will see and experience mostly what they expect, and what was in the brochure… A “traveller” will expose them self to the unexpected, to the unpredictable experience”.
For me personally, a tourist is someone who likes to holiday in popular holiday destinations built specifically for tourism, while a traveller is someone who prefers to get off the beaten track and visit faraway lands, but if you check the Oxford Online Dictionary, the definitions are almost the same:
- Tourist: A person who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure
- Traveller: A person who is travelling or who often travels
Ultimately, as long as we enjoy our trips abroad, it doesn’t really matter what we call ourselves, but we would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the subject, so drop us a line and let us know if you are a Traveller, a Tourist, or maybe just a Holidaymaker!
Equatours Travel News 
We’d have to put ourselves down as travellers!
Good to hear we have fellow travellers in the world! 🙂
So interesting, I had this conversation recently with someone else. I’m both! I’m a traveler who is proud to be a tourist 🙂 How else would I see all the beautiful & interesting things a foreign place has to offer? I have no problem taking advantage of a popular tourist destination but I also love to go off on my own on roads not already paved. Whatever works for people is my opinion 🙂
You are absolutely right Tahira! As long as people travel the world and enjoy doing it, I don’t think it really matters we prefer to call ourselves… 🙂
A tourist jumps off the bus, takes pictures of a landmark and gets back on the bus. A traveller, figured out how to get there on their own, understands the significance of what they’re looking at and lingers. The traveller will take pictures too, but it won’t be the only thing they’re there for.
What a great way to put it Jane! 😉