Tourists vs. travelers: What’s the real difference?

Cuba was on the TV news again for the latest U.S. move to end the long-pointless embargo, and the young, earnest backpacker guy next to me at the airport decided to share.

Never mind that Cuba isn’t going to change as fast as most people imagine (a case of Americans thinking the world revolves around us — a topic for another day).

“Traveler Versus Tourist” is not only one of the most pointless and, frankly, tiresome conflicts in the realm of travel, for the most part it’s only furthered by people who want to feel superior about the way they see the world.

A more realistic (and less judgmental) way to look at travel is in terms of Leisure Versus Discovery.

Sometimes, you want to wander down that alley in Istanbul to find a great bookshop, or visit that incense-clouded temple while trekking through Bhutan, or take a moment of quiet reflection among the stones of mystical Machu Picchu.

[...] it’s a sliding scale from leisure to discovery — most travelers (and most trips) are a combination of both.

[...] because only one side is fighting.

While I’ve never heard leisure-leaning people complain about the discovery folks, it seems like complaining about leisure travelers is a full-time job for more than a few discovery people.

[...] we should define the travel, not the traveler.

[...] at a time when only 30 percent of Americans have passports and 40 percent of us never go anywhere (not out of town overnight), we should be encouraging all travel.