The feel

One thing was sure when I first arrived in Asia: I did not feel like a tourist. I used to associate the word “tourist” with the negative image of a sunburned person on the beach who takes a thousand (ugly) pictures. In that case “tourist” is associated with only a specific type of tourism: mass-tourism. And I did not want to be associated with that. In contradiction, the word “traveller” is usually associated with a positive image of someone who tries to become part of the local culture instead of taking part in superficial activities, someone who is searching for unique experiences and explores the unwalked path.

Then what was I, tourist or traveller? I did not spend my time sunbathing on the beach and I tried to wander of the road (except on those places in Cambodia with the ‘’watch out for bombs”-signs). On the other hand I did not want to miss out on all the famous places and like any other tourist I had brought my camera with me to take a thousand pictures (if they are ugly can be part of another discussion). I guess what mostly made me feel a different kind of tourist, was hanging out with local people and feeling part of the in-crowd.

A more neutral way to define a tourist, ‘a person who travels outside of his normal environment for a period of more than 24 hours’, also fails to explain all the different forms tourism can take. From clubbing and shopping to history and sports – it is all tourism. A traveller is just one of the many personifications of a tourist. Call me a tourist, call me a traveller; in the end it is about how you feel yourself during a journey. In my case, travelling makes me feel alive; and that is the reason I take up my backpack every time and go out in that world.

A caricature I created to illustrate tourist-stereotypes

Want to know more? Read “‘Who is a tourist?’: A critical review” by Scott McCabe (2005) for an account on the identification of the tourist. For more information about the diversification of tourism and a history of tourism, have a look at the chapter on tourism by Edensor (2009) in the International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography (pages 301-312).