My next travels are way ahead...I have come back from a short European tour about a month ago, and have started the new working season in tourism, which will enable me to travel some more once the tourists and sunshine leave this corner of the earth. It is a wheel that has been turning for some years now with the same pace...Both the upside and the downside of having my job is being employed/free for half a year. I am trying to make the most of the upside by travelling as much as I can in my free time. The downside? No steady income, no benefits, no pension plan. Which all seemed to be lingering on the horizon almost out of sight until I reached my middle 30's...I am admitting to having a bit of a midlife crisis heh.
Anyways where I was going with this was: my travels are way ahead, but the thoughts of it are already swarming in my head. Having to once again get used to a parallel universe here is not an easy task! I follow a number of traveler-oriented groups on Facebook, mainly by default. I usually enjoy to look at some stunning photograps of places I would love to visit, or have visited, or never thought were that awesome and are added to my 'list'. At the begining I shared some of their statuses, quotes, etc. but then...Some things started to bug me. One particular group was asking its community this famous question: are you a tourist or are you a traveller? And off they go, rushing who will get to call themselves a 'real', bonafide traveler first...Because by some (un)written law being a traveler is something that is cool, special. Tourists are uncool. And where is the line? Theories abound.
As usual I have a whole long stream of thoughts at one point and the urge to write it down, but with time this urge dwindles and the page remains empty. This is why I forsee my doom in writing this blog hehe :) But today everything seems to be revolving around this issue - one of the best shows on croatian television is hosting a group of local travel writers, and I was curious about this guy who was circumnavigating the globe for a thousand days. I think I'd be keen to read his book as my first croatian traveler's feed! And then there was another guy who was demonstrating the lightness of packing...and not before long, he opened the traveler vs tourist subject. His clarification: tourist is someone who goes to a place with the aim of seeing and coming back home. The traveler just goes, for the sake of the journey. He didn't make me any wiser I think...because he seems to be coming back home after each of his travels too.
After some brief googling I have come across a definition by editor in chief of the well-reputed and omnipresent National Geographic, their Traveler magazine to be precise. His introduction amused me: when you travel, do you yearn for authenticity? Do you seek to make meaningful connections with the people, culture, and places you visit? If your answer is 'yes' then congratulations: you are a traveler, not simply a tourist!
How important is it really to separate the two? And to whom? There is some apparent need for self-confirmation, baptasing into travelling coolness. I cannot see why being a tourist should be degrading. For sure we get annoyed with noisy groups criss-crossing a place that can best be appreciated in some peace & quiet. On a larger scale of things we are just one more person in the travelling net. Besides, it is not unheard of that a group of people making most noise will consist of individuals who like to call themselves backpackers and travelers.
No comments:
Post a Comment