Tourists or travelers

A traveler and a tourist can visit the same city, but experience it very differently.

A tourist’s goals are typically to see all the sights, learn their names, make and collect stunning pictures, eat the foods and observe the rituals of the city.

A traveler, on the other hand, seeks to understand the city, to know and live briefly among the people, to understand the languages, both verbal and nonverbal, and to participate in the rituals of the city.

At the end of equally long visits, the tourist is likely to have seen more monuments, but the traveler is more likely to know how to use the public transportation.

Damiran (1993) as quoted in Oddou, G. & Mendenhall, M (2008). “Global Leadership Development”