Jordan through the eye of Mariël: Being a tourist (again)

Today, the Baptism site and the Dead Sea were scheduled on our program. After two tiring days we were all looking forward to a relaxed afternoon by the Dead Sea. During our drive I realized how much we were behaving like tourists during our trip so far: We have our own tour guide, our own bus, and even our own driver who picks us up and drops us at the hostel every day and brings us from site to site. The bus dropped us off in front of the entrance of an enormous resort by the Dead Sea. Like all tourists, naturally we made pictures of us floating in the Dead Sea and covered our bodies with mud. Afterward we all found a bed at the pool and enjoyed relaxing, swimming and going down the slides. So, a ‘being a tourist’-day again and I really loved it!
During the course we discussed the concept ‘tourist identities’.¹ Cohen wrote about this concept and made the distinction between ‘tourists’ and ‘travellers’. According to him, travelling involves adventure, authentic experiences and discovery. Tourism is, by contrast, characterized by comfort, ease and contrived tourist sites. The definitions raised the feeling that travelling is good and being a tourist is bad. This sounds a bit strange to me because I really enjoyed my tourist experience so far and I definitely do not feel bad about being a tourist. Cohen argued moreover that tourist experiences can be ‘meaningless’ and based on ‘false consciousness’.¹ I read this sentence twice because I could not believe what I read. In my opinion, the differences between tourist and traveller in definition may look large and clear but the essence is identical: to me, the goal of travelling is to learn about yourself and about the world, and anyone can do that, even tourists!

¹ McCabe, S. (2005) ‘Who is a tourist?’: a critical review. SAGE PUBLICATIONS