Rethinking the meaning of “tourist”

You beat me to it. I was about to post the link and highlight this statement regarding social media becoming the new form of travel writing allowing the genre to be more diverse. I question the statement that it has been the domain of the privileged white male for the past 100 years; perhaps 100 years ago. But I do agree that there needs to be more responsibility in posting on social media.

If we look at travel writing over the last 100 years or so, it has
been the domain of the wealthy, very privileged white male, with some
very important exceptions. Now we have the power to become the
narrator of our own adventures. We all have the power to tell our own
stories. That's a way that social media has positively influenced
travel – it has exploded the diversity of voices contributing to
storytelling in travel. The biggest challenge is on us to use this
powerful tool with care and thought, and a sense of responsibility.
That's a way that social media has positively influenced travel – it
has exploded the diversity of voices contributing to storytelling in
travel. The biggest challenge is on us to use this powerful tool with
care and thought, and a sense of responsibility. And that comes for
both those of us who mainly consume content on social media, as well
as those of us who create it. And even those of us who don't have many
followers on social media, we still have a huge amount of influence on
our friends and family members who might follow us. For anyone who
shares on social media, we all have a responsibility to be thoughtful
storytellers. Are you depicting an honest representation of the
reality as you experienced?

“If we think, no, I'm a traveller, and those people are tourists, then nothing is going to change in tourism because no one will feel implicated. We need to elevate our expectations of what it means to be a tourist. And in doing so, we can actually change the way this phenomenon works and the impact it has in the world.”

I found this quote quite interesting in light of some of the discussions and posts previously on this forum. It is often true that we point out others as the problem. I have seen specific discussions about being a traveler vs a tourist with one supposedly superior to the other. Questions are often asked about avoiding tourist crowds without considering they make up part of that crowd.

We are tourists for better or worse.

When I read that quote I immediately thought, “a white woman wrote
that,” always bad form to let one’s race and gender shine through
one’s writing.

What I was thinking but wasn't certain about being as blunt as you.

I was curious about that also, so I did a quick search and found this list, that included several women: https://www.newsweek.com/best-travel-writers-all-time-67725 But I will point out that she said the last 100 years, and I think we could safely assume that most travel writers for the last 100 years have been men. Maybe not all wealthy but not too many economically deprived.

But interestingly, that list included Dervla Murphy, an Irish writer who inspired me to love travel. Her first book was "Full Tilt" about her solo bicycle journey through India back in the early 60's. At some point, she had a daughter and took her along. The books were enriching and wonderful, and to a certain extent, I credit my love of travel to her (along with family genes, as my parents loved to travel). She died a few years ago at the age of 90 in Ireland.

”I think the distinction is wishful thinking, we all impact places we visit negatively in some way.”

I didn’t read the article, but I will comment on this thought. I really hope & strive to leave a positive impact on the people I encounter, especially during my solo trips when I am staying at the little B&B’s and small family-run hotels. I hope my kindness, patience and attempts to be sensitive to their culture (& not hurt their ears with my language pronunciations) projects my intentions to respect them and learn more about their country.

My first time to Europe was with the People-to-People Ambassador Program. Hopefully I have continued to convey their philosophy of travel during my subsequent trips.

Update: I did go read the article now. The article’s last lines are exactly the People-to-People philosophy: ”If each of those 1.5 billion people saw themselves as a citizen, a diplomat who's going out into the world, which is how I think of the new tourist – someone who realises they're an ambassador for their country and comes looking to make authentic human connections with people who live in the place, not to just consume and tick a box. Who don't see themselves as superior to the people, or the place they're visiting, who can come away from that experience with a degree of scepticism for their home country that might not ever have occurred to them had they never left home. This is the power of travel.”

I prefer not to put myself or others in boxes. Rarely does any good, its never accurate, generally divides or at best only makes a minority feel better about themselves through participation in the labeling.

Soldiers, merchants, couriers and diplomats were the majority of tourists for centuries. We just decided to ignore nearly all of their documents.

Very impressive to me is the vita of James Holman. Born in 1786, an officer in the Royal Navy, he presumably fell ill with rheumatism and an eye condition at the age of 25, resigned from the service and soon went blind. But instead of remaining in cultivated boredom in the naval invalids' dormitory, he began to study literature and medicine in Edinburgh. Doctors advise him to travel to the Mediterranean. This triggered a wanderlust that would last for the rest of his life.

Holman undertakes four major trips lasting several years, as well as numerous shorter ones: The major ones took him through France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands for two years from 1819, then through Russia and Siberia from 1822 and finally to Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania from 1827. Finally, he traveled to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Holman traveled by coach and ship, on horseback or other mounts, on foot or in a sedan chair, depending on where he happened to be. He climbs Mount Vesuvius and Table Mountain near Cape Town - where everyone but him is overcome by vertigo. He takes over the orphaned helm on board a ship after an accident and follows the captain's commands exactly, he visits Russian weddings and Siberian prisons, negotiates with African chiefs in Sierra Leone, sees slave markets in Zanzibar and successfully hunts elephants in Sri Lanka: "I climbed onto the carcass and danced triumphantly on it," he notes jubilantly.

Holman travels alone, hires local support, meets locals and other English people, maintains his teatime and overcomes any difficulties that arise with a mixture of charm, optimism and self-discipline. A few rules are important: Coins instead of banknotes and careful packing so that every item is in its permanent place.

Holman takes notes along the way. With the Noctograph, a copying device developed for the army that requires neither ink nor a pen. Back home, his travel experiences were published as books. They are very successful, partly because their author is blind and partly, and this seems paradoxical, because they are very descriptive.

I believe this author made a recent appearance on Monday Night Travel, at this very site.

People just want to sell books. I think this author has come up with just a new name to sell books.

Being a "new tourist" means don't travel like the jerk you are at home. The problems with tourism today isn't so much the increased number of tourists, its the behaviors. We just have more jerks traveling today than ever before which is a reflection of the fact we have more jerks in our society than ever before. Why? Because we tolerate bad behavior today more than ever. Who hasn't seen videos of people walking into retail shops and just walking out without paying or hearing that lawbreakers will not be punished if the theft is under a certain dollar amount?

The addition of more tourists should not be a surprise to most of these locations. Its not like the Eiffel Tower was just put up last week or the Red Light District in Amsterdam just started last summer. These type of places are popular and always will be. The only places that have a legitimate complaint is the sleepy place that was just doing fine until someone said, "I found a great back door" or a travel writer foisted some idyllic little place all over the internet.

If a location doesn't want tourism, I believe they can stop it or control it very simply. The problem is locations and their residents want the revenue, but don't want the headaches that come with it. They go hand in hand. Stop blaming the "visitor" for showing up. Blame the visitor for behaving like a jerk and tell them to leave. "No soup for you, come back, one year."

Tourist
Definitions from Oxford Languages
1. a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure.

Yup, still works.

In my view, there are "travelers"--those who spend much, or perhaps nearly all, of their time away from their native country and months at a time in foreign countries seeking a glimpse of another culture. Nearly everyone else is a "tourist," including those folks on the haughty side who think they are better than their fellow tourists.

There are two differences between today and two generations ago: today, international air travel is relatively much less expensive than it was, and an exponentially greater number of people have the means to travel.

And tourism has enriched many of the cities that are now decrying tourists, who also can be called "visitors." Let's see Venice impose a two-year moratorium on tourism and what happens to the city. And it seems a bit rich that Barcelona, a city that hosted two world's fairs (albeit a long time ago) and the Summer Olympics three decades ago, is complaining about tourism.

Can there be too much of a good thing? Certainly. Do cities have the right to take measures to control the negative aspects of an excessive number of tourists? Absolutely. And it's not difficult to do--impose especially high fees on cruise ships wanting to dock in or near the city and even higher taxes to hotel rates. The market system does work. If the cost of a hotel room is high enough, fewer people will visit. If the cost of a cruise ship going to a city is high enough, the cruise company will pick other ports. Cities can price themselves out of the tourist trade. But then watch those in the hospitality industries who will suffer.

I agree with Mr E. I won’t be reading this book, but if others enjoy it, good for them.

Yep, I’m with James E on this one. My husband and I are tourists.

Informed, respectful, grateful tourists..

Yup. Tourist, traveler, visitor, it's all the same.

You can always tell who didn't read the article in the responses.

I’m not sure how you can tell who read the article. I read it before I responded, but I have no idea who else did.

The Oxford dictionary definition of a tourist

“ a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure”

I’m sorry, but I realize it’s gratifying to say that we’re travelers not tourists but the truth is we’re tourists and trying to act like we’re travelers and we’re better than those other people who are just tourists is silly. But apparently it took this author 20 years to come to that realization

I was born and raised in Hawai’i, and tourism has been in my life forever. My childhood bus route winds up the hillside and offers excellent views. I regularly saw tourists on it. The visitors may have wanted to see a slice of local life, but I hope they didn’t think they blended in, because we could always tell. And it has affected my own travel because I know that wherever I go, if I’m there as a visitor, not a resident, I’m a tourist. When I travel I am polite, try to learn the language and the important customs and etiquette, and never forget that I am a guest barely understanding the surface of the place (this can count for visiting other parts of the US as well).

I am polite, try to learn the language and the important customs and
etiquette, and never forget that I am a guest barely understanding the
surface of the place (this can count for visiting other parts of the
US as well).

Very well said.

And yes, I read the article but choose to respond to the other posts, and not the article. But on the article, I agree with Carol above.

I’m sorry, but I realize it’s gratifying to say that we’re travelers
not tourists but the truth is we’re tourists and trying to act like
we’re travelers and we’re better than those other people who are just
tourists is silly. But apparently it took this author 20 years to come
to that realization

As for Jean's update,

”If each of those 1.5 billion people saw themselves as a citizen, a
diplomat who's going out into the world.... "

Too much self importance in that attitude for me. I am a nobody and can change nothing by intent. So I travel quietly, with humility and as much as I have the opportunity, kindness. Beyond that, it's up to G-d. But on the forum I compensate by being an .... you know.

wherever I go, if I’m there as a visitor, not a resident, I’m a tourist. When I travel I am polite, try to learn the language and the important customs and etiquette, and never forget that I am a guest barely understanding the surface of the place...

Excellently said. I remind myself that I'm always a guest in someone else's home.

We try to sneak in and sneak out and hope we didn't offend anything or anybody.

think about travel attitudes from a different perspective and we need to elevate our expectations of what it means to be a tourist

Using my own definitions, I was a traveler and now I strive to be a responsible tourist. I logged well over one million air miles during my career. In an out of a city in a day or two. Little concern for language or local customs as I was always meeting with locals from our company. Rarely did I have time for more than a quick walk around a city.

Now I am retired I have switched into what I consider to be responsible tourist mode. Multiple days in a city. See some of the smaller cities and less-visited sites. Study the history and culture before I go. Use Google Translate to communicate in their language. Walk and use public transit to get around. I often travel in the shoulder seasons to avoid the crowds, for both personal preference and to level-out over-toursim. And, in part, to avoid what I consider to be misbehaving tourists.

I don't know if the book addresses this, I think there is a third category to to add to traveler and tourist. That is the the digital nomad. Many of the blogs, websites and social media posts are now from full-time digial nomads who earn a living traveling and sharing their travels on social media. Few appear to be privilaged, white males. There are also countless digial nomads who journey to a new city for a week or longer and work remotely. They may spend most of their day at work, but have the chance to be a tourist during personal time.

We try to sneak in and sneak out and hope we didn't offend anything or anybody.

I travel for selfish reasons. I go to a place to enjoy the experiences of that place. I am not an ambassador for my country (Australia) I am not there to become some great global citizen or to make the World a better place. I am there basically to make myself happy.

Two very well stated posts.

Respect others and their property and enjoy what you came to see. Simple!

We all strive to not be tourists. You can see it in the live like a local, the penchant for learning the language, the desire to fit in with the way we “do not dress”.
We want to be flies on the wall.
Anywhere you do not live, more or less outside a 10 mile radius to your home, you are a tourist. If I go to downtown from my suburb, I am a tourist.
But we try to not be by altering our state of mind on what we perceive ourselves to be. Our inclusion is a perception we have, and the place we visit has its own perspective on the same day, place, and time.
You cannot escape it, despite yearning mightily for it. Best we can do is be a better tourist than the “that guy”.
If you wan to be a better traveler, well, that is at the airport where 99% of the people there are en route. There is your first hurdle to be a better anyone.