Are you a tourist or a traveller?

I made part of my quest, my occupation. I’ve made a taste, my profession. Travelling has become my profession.

For the last two years I have been working as a travel manager for a Canadian company. I plan, manage and organise trips in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Central America. I am responsible for the budget, transportation, accommodation, activities and safety of the travellers. But I also like to tell stories of each place and plant some seeds. I organise trips and run them.

Travelling is not easy

Like any profession, travelling demands a lot from you. It is not always easy and sometimes it puts you on the ropes. There are long days and there are setbacks. Sometimes there are accidents and sickness. Leading a group of travellers from different cultures requires a lot of responsibility and a lot of personal energy. There are quieter days and there are exhausted ones.

For me, the most important thing on a trip is that everyone returns safe and sound, that we create a good group, kind and respectful, and above all, that we have a good time. I believe that the perception of a trip will depend on your attitude, your energy and your state of mind. How the experience will be remembered depends on you. And as in life, everything is reflected and everything comes back.

The human being is a historical traveller and, generally, we like best what is most different to us.

I am not a tourist

I also believe that being a tourist is not the same as being a traveller, there’s an important difference.

For me, a tourist is someone who regularly travels more for ego. They care little about the history of the place and much more about the photo, the "selfie" and the "likes". They dont want to discover much and prefer to go to the most popular and commercial places. Tourists follow trends.

Travellers are interested in everything. We go deep in the local culture and try to understand it. A traveller finds himself in conversation with foreigners, is interested in learning a bit of their language and wants to understand part of their customs and heritage.

An experienced traveller also knows the importance of being patient, smiling at a border crossing, being kind and respectful of the local culture. We practice observation of the environment and appreciates each new landscape, portrait and anecdote. We like to explore and collect stories and moments.

Human have been travellers for thousands of years and usually we like what is most different to us.

Community travel

I also believe that travel can be sustainable and communal. By travelling you can support local communities and directly benefit local suppliers so that the money stays in the community. No middlemen and no big suppliers, have social and environmental conscience is game changer.

Supporting local consumption, small producers and the local market with a fair trade perspective can make the difference. Prioritising the services offered by locals and directly benefiting the community is the essence of community-based tourism versus massive tourism. Travel in small groups, eat in public markets, get to know the locals and appreciate the unknown is part of my philosophy.

It will be essential that the trip is environmentally responsible and reduces our carbon footprint as much as possible. Never leave plastic, pick it up as often as necessary, be respectful of the flora and fauna of the place, do not abuse the air conditioning or the heater and make sure that all products consumed are friendly to the ecosystems that will coexist with us. Tourism has to be responsible.

To put it better: "there is no social justice without environmental justice".

The characters

In my case, travel also brings stories and characters. My life happens there, away from home. In the uncertain, in the unexpected and in conversation with the strange, the alien and the surreal. I am excited about travelling and I think that everyone experiences the journey in a different way and everyone builds their own story.

When you travel, you lose track of time and space and you start a parallel life. You are away from home. We travel to get to know new places or to visit them again, and we end up getting to know ourselves better inside. Travel moves you and confronts you. Nobody comes back from a trip the same. You are a stranger in a different culture and your new context starts from there. From there you exist.

We travel for something and the journey has an intention and a meaning. We are moved by geography, wildlife, nature, ancestors or the history behind each corner, from the highlands, the tropics, the desert or the mountains. Perhaps we are looking for a change, a stop along the way or an answer.

Storytelling

From my side, I wish I could tell all those stories with the written word, because spoken it is already there. To write chronicles and stories of my travels so that the day I finish travelling, I can read them again and savour them again. In the end, I write and travel for myself.

Because I don’t know how long this will last and because I still have a couple of passions to explore. That’s why I want an account of what my eyes have seen. A testimony of what it was and what it is. A flight log.

I promise that I will do what I have been doing for some years now: only the best I can. No less, no more. If I work in this, it is because I like to write and to travel, and here, we will travel together. I will be a foot postman, a seller of stories, a thief of metaphors and a dealer in tales.