Scoring:
1. lf you answered yes to this question, you're probably more of a tourist than a traveler. lf you answered no, you probably have traveler tendencies.
Tourists typically have a mission in mind when they travel. For example, according to the National Geographic Society, 90 percent of all visitors to the Grand Canyon congregate at the South Rim, snap pictures, and leave within hours. i would argue that most of these people are tourists because of their singular focus on their main compuulsion to just see this natural phenomenon.
According to the English journalist, novelist, and essayist Gilbert K. Chesterton, "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."
2. lf you checked the third box under this question, it's safe to assume you're a traveler. Travelers tend to be a bit more reflective than tourists. As New York Times bestselling author Pat Conroy wrote, "Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." (The italics are mine.)
lf you checked the first box under question 2, you're most likely a tourist (see explanation in answer 1 regarding those who are mission-oriented). lf you checked the middle box, you're a little of both.
3. A few years ago, l took a spring trip to the Southwest canyons. i have a rather active fear of heights, and after about our fifth or sixth trek on narrow paths next to sheer drop-offs in sweltering heat, our group paused for a water break. i honestly didn't know if i could physically go on. Our guide, nature photographer Eric Rock, told us, "Tourists travel through a location by seeing it from a window or a deck. Travelers allow themselves to be immersed in the spot. When you let yourslf get dirty, wet, muddy, and cold, then you have found a place."
lf you chose "wander the nearby streets, no matter conditions" for question No.3, score one on the traveler endpoint of the continuum. lf you chose "relax in the lounge of your hotel by reading a book or people watching," mark this on the tourist side. if you chose "take a nap in your room," well, it's a wash. We all get tired on trips -- especially on that sixth hike in hot sun on the brink of an abyss.
American writer Daniel J. Boorstin once penned, "The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes 'sight-seeing.