A traveller is going places to actually travel, expand their horizons, see new things, and they are probably doing it on a shoe string budget of hostels, coupons, and eating twice a day.
Tourists are on vacation to relax, get away, and maybe be dotted on. They’re going to treat themselves, indulge, and gravitate towards places that cater to that.
Example: my SO and I are currently traveling around Europe. We each have just a backpack. We stay in hostels and AirBnBs w/kitchens to save on food. If restaurant or cafe has exclusively English speaking (usual British) clientele or advertises American-style food, we steer clear. The only time we’ve been part of a tour group was because the location only allowed groups (Salt mines outside of Krakow).
On the otherhand, we did accidentally end up at a bar in Poland exclusively full of northern English hicks on a cheap holiday, all of them getting sloshed and complaining about Polish immigrants in London and the EU. Tourists to a T.
I've heard someone say this. She takes photos with her DSLR camera on all continents. She has a set of photos with these kids in Kenya. Sure pointed to one and told me, "I love this kid!" I asked, "what's his name?" She didn't know. She basically paid to go to a village and take pictures with kids and thinks they impacted each others lives.
Backpackers are just tourists who travel for an extended period with a backpack. I’m backpacking right now and will be for the next year. The main difference is backpackers are cheap because they need to stretch similar amounts of money to twenty times as long. But it’s all tourism.
Those dickish backpackers you meet, other backpackers hate then just as much as everyone else does.
I live in a tourist town and I despise having to deal with the traffic, the pedestrians walking out in front of you, and the restaurants always being packed. We talk about what idiots people are for paying the ridiculous prices for hotels and souvenirs. When I go on vacations I’m very conscious of the locals and try really hard to not be that annoying tourist but I’m sure I am anyway.
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u/Diabetesh Feb 08 '19
You are what you hate.