Obviously this is my opinion, this is what I believe. So long as they care. For me, it all boils down to one thing; travellers care. As I write this I have just come from the beautiful and historic town of Kotor on the coast of Montenegro.
The town is so small I feel I could kick a football over its walls, yet every single day a new cruise ship moors up and thousands of passengers swarm within the walls, cluttering and clogging up the small side streets of Old Town. At one restaurant I asked the waiter what he thought of the cruise ship passengers. If anything, the large groups of them walking around Old Town put people off from dining outside. Walking around, you will see clusters of passengers all with a guide from the ship.
Kotor in the early morning and evening is a completely different place compared to the afternoon. Without the tourists, it is tranquil and charming.
With them, it is something else entirely. I know which one I prefer. Cruise ships spew out pollution in the beautiful Bay of Kotor. One night, after everything had closed down, including all the bars, I found a group of locals celebrating the opening of a new shop. Confident on rakia, the local fiery spirit, I finally asked them what they all thought of the type of tourists Kotor attracted.
Everyone stayed up late and interacted with each other; a part of that culture has died. According to local fisherman, fish stocks and with it their way of life and earning a living are down 10 times than what they were just a few years ago. Also, a particular type of fish has become so rare it is thought to be extinct.
Please be a traveler, not a tourist. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in. Perhaps the hardest thing to deal with is as travellers there is very little we can do about tourists. I guess the only thing we can do is to keep on being ourselves, to keep on travelling, to keep on caring. W hat do you think is the difference between a tourist and a traveller?
I would love to hear your opinion so make sure you let me know in the comments below. I love the quote from Gary Arndt. If we venture outside of our hometown, we are essentially "tourists" at some point - whether we like to admit it or not!
I always ask why are things "travellers" value automatically "better" than what "tourists" do? There are lots of overlaps and I believe we shouldn't have to be defined as one or the other.
Thanks for sharing your views on this topic! Oh I agree with you. I was being extremely facetious when I wrote this post a couple of years ago now! There's such blurred lines between being a traveller and a tourist and I think fundamentally they're the same thing. Expanding on your point, you get just as many annoying travellers as you do tourists! Always a good debate though! It is just two different meanings of the describing of someone who is going to the different city, country, anywhere.
Tourists are no less travellers than travellers are tourists — we are starting to create a problem by polarising both of these ways of travelling. Puppy Defender. Chocolate Fiend and Custard Lover. Dip, Cover or Wrap anything in sugar and I'm Yours! Email address:. Facebook Twitter Instagram pinterest Bloglovin. Travel , Travel Advice. Jul 9, Having an identity… There seems to have been a conscious effort for some people to identify themselves totally as travellers and disassociate the identity that they are tourists.
A tourist is usually a person that has to see the gist of the country they are visiting in a short time.
Hence, they usually prefer visiting the tourist places of significance. They usually carry a lot of bags, in order to cover things they might need. They do not have time for the locals and prefer to stick to their tourist groups. They can usually be found in large groups, along with a tour guide leading them around the country. Tourists are usually people that prefer to interact very little with the locals and do not have the time to sit and converse with them.
They do not listen to their stories and prefer to share very little about themselves. They are usually seen taking photos in almost every tourist spot in random poses.
They also prefer to speak in English and do not like to converse in the local language. Tourists usually prefer to reside in hotels that have pools and spas, which allow them very little interaction with the locals and their housing manners. Tourists and travellers are very different when it comes to interacting with a country. However, each are best suited to a particular type of person.
A tourist has very limited time to incorporate all the things of a country into a small time consumed package and hence he must cover all the tourist places.
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