The Traveler/Tourist
Debate
16 March, 2000
A bit of background before you read this……In the
backpacker community, there has been a debate raging for a long time about who
are better travelers, backpackers, or non-backpackers. Some backpackers feel
they are superior to anyone who isn’t. They call people that are package
travelers "tourists" and themselves "travelers", and look down on the
"tourists." I recently voiced my opinion this topic when a question on a travel
website was posed about it. Below is the response that I posted.
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I feel that traveling runs in my blood. I don’t remember ever not having the "travel bug." I grew up in a family where we did a lot of traveling within the USA and Canada.
I have relatives that are retired who are the "package" type of people. When visiting unfamiliar places, they usually prefer to take package style vacations (cruises, resorts, etc.). Other than a trip to London in 1997 and a trip to Germany twenty years ago, they have remained in the USA and Canada. However, this summer (2000) they will visit France, Switzerland, Germany, and Poland independently. They have booked train tickets and hotels already (except in Poland), but the rest they will do on their own. This is a big step for them.
I have another family member who has an excellent running 1987 Honda Accord (that he bought new) with 600,000 miles (960,000 km) on it from his travels. He has covered most of the USA and Canada. He mainly travels on his weeks of holiday (vacation) and over long holiday weekends. He drives everywhere, and when traveling alone, pulls into rest areas and sleeps in the car when he is on the road and stays in motels when he has reached his destination. He hasn’t yet the desire to leave North America. He has been with the same company since 1986.
I have explored most of the USA (I have only to visit the North Central states to be able to say "all of the USA"), some its territories, Canada, Mexico, and all of Europe (eastern and western). I am strictly a public transportation user, with my preferred method of travel being trains. I despise cars and driving. I am the one in the family that quit his secure job of six years to follow is heart and travel extensively. I book all of my own travel, sleep on trains and busses when possible, and stay in hostels.
Are any of us better travelers than the others? Honestly, until I had an opportunity to think about it in depth, I thought I was. After all, I was the one mingling with the locals and "roughing it," while they, by my definition, weren’t. However, After giving it much thought, I came to realize that I am not a better traveler than they are, and, on the same token, they are not better travelers than I am. We just have different styles. We are all able to share what we saw and learned while traveling. We all are also able to show different points of view to the others and love learning what the others enjoyed and sharing travel tips.
This summer, my "package" tourist/traveler relatives will meet up with this "independent" traveler/tourist in Poland, a country that I loved so much while I was traveling, I decided to make it my home. I will take them on second class trains (normal for those of us working on Polish wages) and will show them the best of this wonderful country. We will eat at small, local places, but will see major sites. We will both leave Poland on the same day. They will travel on an airplane to Stockholm (where they will join a package tour of Scandinavia and Russia) and I will travel on a train to Lithuania to explore (at my own pace) the Baltics, Russia, the Ukraine, and wherever else life may lead me. I will travel as I want and have a great time, and they will travel as they want and have a great time. Our paths will cross for 5 days and we will have a great time together. Eventually, they will return to their lives in the USA and I will return to my life in Poland. We will have many stories and experiences to share through email and pictures.
To me, that is the magic of traveling. Would I be happy spending a few months traveling on a package tour? Definitely not. Would they be happy spending a few months traveling independently? No way. But, the fact that we can share time together and set our different styles of traveling aside for a while to meet up is great. No two people travel alike; I don’t care whether it’s two backpackers or two package travelers. There are always differences. Just like people in life, no matter wherever you go. There are always differences.
The Traveler/Tourist debate has occurred on many different branches of this site. It also has occurred in many hostels that I have stayed in (with hostel patrons bashing anyone that wasn’t). My question is, "What does it matter?" Both kinds of travelers effect areas in different ways. Package types like my relatives contribute greatly to the economy of the region (monetarily) at possibly expense of the environment (because of resorts being built for their comfort and/or ports for their cruise ships to dock in). Independent travelers like myself contribute less monetarily to the current local economy, but contribute more by actions such as teaching English. So, let’s just put the "Tourist/Traveler debate" to bed and enjoy life, traveling and people.
Cheers and happy travels.