by Tracy Bee

Created on: May 08, 2008

Who could argue with the legendary Mark Twain?
Here's what the famed wanderer had to say about travel's significance:
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth..."

If only this could be said for all who travel. Sadly, as travel can now be done with unprecedented ease, such epiphanies often allude the traveling masses. Rather than decreasing prejudice, modern travel may actually worsen it. Travel has become about the spectacle - the arrival in new places and photographing of its strangeness, only to tell people about it back home, and hardly to understand it. Thus, those who travel can be subdivided into two key types: the tourist and the traveler.

Perhaps G.K. Chesterton stated it best: "The traveler sees what he sees...the tourist sees what he has come to see." The difference, after all, between a tourist and a traveler is in their perspectives. Travelers embrace experiences, and grow from them, versus being a passive observer to the images of a place. American writer, Miriam Beard, has also done well to define this key element to authentic travel. She states, "travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Travelers see life with renewed vision everywhere they go. They do not take with them preconceptions or prejudices about what they will witness and experience. There is not any single, correct 'way of life,' after all. The traveler's mind is constantly expanding with every place experienced. Tourists, on the other hand, simply observe 'sights' - not life - through a superficial lens, ignorant of any insights revealed.

To better understand this difference, consider the following story:

~~
The tourist versus the traveler: A tale of a two villages.
~~

First, her father visited Africa.

He was there on business, as usual. In fact, he boasts what an international man he is, jetting off to major international cities every other week. Some say he is quite the tourist. He is, after all, an international financier. This time, his work had taken him to Ethiopia's bustling capital. It was his first time in Africa. And, on a rare day off from meetings, he felt obligated to see some sights. Upon his return, his wife and daughter would surely ask a million questions. They are especially curious about his visits to

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>