WYSETC: Tourist, Traveler or Backpacker?

The World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) is happening now in Turkey, and as always, some interesting news is coming out of the year's largest gathering of movers and shakers from all sectors of the student travel world. Among the highlights is a study released in time for WYSTC* called "New Horizons II: Global Study of Young Independent Travellers," an update on WYSETC's benchmark 2002 study of youth travel. Among other tidbits, the study takes a look at the always-hot topic of what to call y'all via asking what you call yourselves.

Tourists, Travelers or Backpackers?

Respondents to a survey of youth travelers worldwide which helped to create the study were asked to identify themselves, and the results are intriguing:

• 46 percent identify themselves as "Travelers"
• 25 percent call themselves "Backpackers"
• 23 percent say they're "Tourists"
• 6 percent chose other labels -- Greg Jones, lead researcher, writes, "The most frequent responses included 'a mixture of backpacker/traveller/tourist', volunteer, or student."

Whether one is a tourist or a traveler is a subject of debate among older travelers -- among those on the backpacker trail, though, it's largely a matter of semantics: you're on the road, that's all. The semantics are often more a concern to those who want to market to you -- in Australia, for instance, some outfits, like Melbourne bus tour companies, are avoiding the backpacker label altogether lest it cast a crusty connotation on their clientele and services. If you've got an opinion on the labels, though, let's hear it!

Some not-so-oft and oft-quoted definitions of tourists and travelers:

• "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see." -- G. K. Chesterton
• "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.' " -- Daniel J. Boorstin
• "The vagabond, when rich, is called a tourist." -- Paul Richard

(If you don't want to plow through the WYSTEC study, know that we will -- and we'll keep giving you the highlights: next up, we'll tell you where the study says most youth travelers are headed, for instance.)

WYSTEC

WYSTC is the annual gathering of globetrotting professionals and interested folk allied with the student travel world hosted by the World Youth and Student Educational Travel Confederation (WYSTEC), an organization aimed at promoting the benefits of youth and student travel and supporting the development of youth and student travel specialists.

At last year's WYSTC in Australia, highlights for me were hearing that the now-happening Australian work visa for US backpackers was on the way, and that the WYSE work abroad association would be formed. I also got a grin out of Tony Wheeler's presentation: the Lonely Planet founder, who was getting ready to publish Bad Lands - A Tourist on the Axis of Evil, remarked that on hearing about President Bush's Axis of Evil choices for nations most deserving the badness designation, his thought was, "I've got to go there."

Stay tuned for more news from WYSTC 2008 and the New Horizons youth travel study.

Related: "Don't Call 'em Backpackers, Mate" | Backpackers, Bucks and Techno Travel | What's a flashpacker?