Tourist, traveller, holidaymaker or visitor?

On the hiking trail up to Lion's Head in Cape Town, we met a hiker from Hawaii who introduced himself as "a traveller, not a tourist". That encounter inspired this post. Tourist, traveller, holidaymaker or visitor?

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Tourist or traveller - is there a difference?

Sometimes you meet people who, like the man at the Lion's Head, are keen to tell you that they are travellers rather than tourists. You can then begin to wonder if there is a difference between the two concepts. It is also natural to reflect on why someone wants to tell you that they are a traveller rather than a tourist. That is to say: is one finer than the other?

Being a traveller

If you look at the words simply, you might think that there is a difference. A traveller is "a person who is on a journey", which can be for leisure purposes, but perhaps also because they are travelling for work or to visit relatives, run errands in another city or for any other reason. One could therefore imagine that the concept of 'traveller' is a bit broader than tourist.

Being a tourist

The term 'tourist' is usually used to refer to someone travelling for leisure or pleasure. However, the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) defines tourism as "activities of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for less than one year for leisure, business or other purposes". According to this definition, even business travellers may sometimes be called tourists.

Being a visitor

One way to more clearly include both tourists and business travellers could be to talk about 'visitors', which is common in the hospitality industry.

Being a holidaymaker

Last but not least, we could talk about 'holidaymakers'. This word clearly describes that you are talking about something you do on holiday. On the other hand, you don't necessarily have to travel to enjoy your holidays, but this word can also include people who enjoy their holidays at home.

But, is it 'nicer' to be a traveller than a tourist?

Now that we've talked a bit about concepts, maybe we can get to what this is really about. Is it 'nicer' to be a traveller than a tourist?

While tourist can be associated with positive experiences, it can also bring to mind over-tourism and a kind of travelling that doesn't help, but rather hurts, local people. Instead, maybe "traveller" sounds like a more independent and curious explorer? We guess this is why some people sometimes prefer to define themselves as travellers rather than tourists.

But honestly, all of us who travel for less than a year are both tourists and travellers. We can try to make good choices on our trip - for the environment and for the local population, for example - whether we call ourselves tourists or travellers. Does it have to be so loaded? What do you think?

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