World wonder(fully) empty

'I can't get a good shot with all these pesky tourists in the way!' It could be a line from a Tom Cruise movie, where our hero has to shoot the bad guy on the Eifell tower or some other touristic place. No, it was actually what I said when visiting the Machu Picchu, the world wonder in Peru. And don't worry, I wasn't about to shoot anybody, I was trying to get a good photograph. The place was literally swarming with tourists, who frustrated my attempts to take the perfect picture. How different most of the sites in Jordan were! The ancient city of Jerash and world wonder Petra, hardly anybody there! With me mumbling about 'stupid tourists', and thus identifying myself as different, it got me thinking. The question is: what makes a tourist a tourist?

The term 'tourist' turns out to be quite complex. One type of tourist isn't the other, and Scott McCabe has written an elaborate article on the matter.[1] The activities, the reasons and motivation of travelling, the facilities and (infra)structures used, and many more are important when regarding the term 'tourism'. The typology offered by Cohen I think is very useful in identifying types of tourists: 1) the organized mass tourist, 2) the individual mass tourist, 3) the explorer and 4) the drifter.
Pearce came with the idea that there is a 'travel ladder' based on Maslow's idea of hierarchy of needs.[2] There are five levels of motivation, going from the need for relaxation to the existential quest for self-fulfillment and  identity. These theories fit quite nicely together. On one end of the spectrum, the mass tourist not caring for authenticity[3] but looking for leisure, on the other end the backpacker traveler, longing for real experiences and his true identity.

Be as it may, they all get in the way when I'm taking a good picture.

 1. The beautiful Monastery of Petra almost all to myself

 2. People waiting in line for the Machu Picchu at 6:00 AM

 3. Worldwonder Machu Picchu swarming with people


1 McCabe, Scott. "‘Who is a tourist?’A critical review." Tourist studies 5.1 (2005): 85-106.
2 William, S. (2009). Tourism Geography: A new synthesis. London: Routledge
3. MacCannell, Dean. "Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings." American journal of Sociology (1973): 589-603