Tourist or Traveler?

Dear Reader,

I was curious. What are the differences between being a tourist or a traveler? Today, instant enlightenment awaits at the end of the Internet’s tunnels, so I typed the question into a search engine.

WOW! There is no such thing as a value-free word: consider the difference between “trailer” and “vacation home.” In the blogosphere, there is unlimited access to world-wide polarized thinking. I learned that “tourist” has grown a pejorative overcoat, with handy lists of what designates either a tourist (bad) or a traveler (good). Bloggers do not hide their disdain for “tourists” and the superiority of the “traveler” (read blogger). It was fun to read a few, albeit contradictory, opinions and predict which label they would stick on my back.

I turned to my trusty dictionary collection to get my bearings and a set of definitions. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1978), a tourist is simply a person who travels for pleasure. The definition for traveler is even more elemental: a person who travels.

I wondered if the meanings had shifted over time, so I consulted The Century Dictionary (1891). There, a tourist is “One who makes a tour; one who makes a journey for pleasure, stopping at a number of places for the purpose of seeing the sights, scenery, etc.” A traveler had more layers of meaning: “a toiler; laborer; worker” and “one who travels in any way; one who makes a journey, or one who is on his way from place to place” and “one who journeys to foreign lands; one who visits strange countries and people” and finally, “one who travels for a mercantile firm to solicit orders for goods, collect accounts, and the like.” The Grand Tour, required of the wealthy in days of old, and Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” came to mind as I read these definitions.

“Travel: England: William Blake”

This month’s blog has made me think, which is why I write it in the first place. Why do I travel? Admittedly, to find art. But wait, that’s not all! I want to learn as much as I can from as many people and things as possible in the prescribed time. I look forward to marveling, to thinking, to getting upset, to being consoled. I like to observe how things get done and who’s in control. I find satisfaction in tasting new foods and attempting communication in an unfamiliar language to get that food, or buy tickets, or (gasp) to shop. I know I will test my panic button when negotiating airports, trains, subways and streets.

Label me “tourist” or “traveler,” but I will be the same individual waiting in lines or looking for a place to eat, hungry and alert to the possibilities.