Travel versus tourism

I guess I never really thought much about the difference between these two words.

Until now.

I was reading an interview in a recent issue of National Geographic Traveler where editor Keith Bellows asked that question to Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist.

This was Davis's answer:

"Tourists are by definition out of their element, and there seems to be something about the institution of tourism that creates an inherent imbalance between visitor and host. This is the curse of a service-inspired industry....

Travel is very different. Travel implies a one-way ticket, with no fixed itinerary, no plans, no date of return. The responsible traveler is one who finds that correct means or metaphor to break down the inherent cultural barriers that exits between an outsider and a community in which that outsider appears as guest....

The cardinal rule is to always give more than you take, not merely in a material sense, but at every single level -- emotional, spiritual, political, economic."

Wow, how's that for a little food for thought?!