TRAVELLERS
AND TOURISTS
It is
really a traveller a good deal more adventurous than a tourist? Taking into
consideration most opinions about this matter, it follows that differences
between both of them are not as bigger as it is claimed.
What has
given to the word "traveller"a meaning of courageous person, mingling
with nature and local landscapes, is the stereotype that most of us have
created in our minds. To put it another way: the image of the backpacker
roaming with their dusty boots, and doing hitchhiking in order to do "round the world"
with barely spare change in their pocket, is significantly more attractive than
this of the geek tourist wearing white
socks and flowered shirt.
However,
this idea is certainly old fashioned: not only is the idea of the
"superficial tourists" disappearing, but sometimes, they are also considered like real experts
about places that they visit. In fact, some of them have left their own
countries and their life style, to become citizens in the tourist places where
they had previously sightseeing during their holydays.
In
contrast, some of the "so called travellers" who show off of being
the bravest, and have the best knowledge about new spots, have neither
interacted with any local habitant, nor investigated into its history or
political situation, as some tourists are used to doing.
To
conclude, nowadays the boundaries between the words mentioned above are
actually blurred, as a consequence,
there is no point in discussing about that.
