tourist

tourist — noun

1. a person who travels to a city, country, or attraction to enjoy themselves and s

1.nounA1
Definition

a person who travels to a city, country, or attraction to enjoy themselves and see new things, often during a holiday rather than for work or study.

Example

Every summer, thousands of tourists from Europe visit the temples in Kyoto.

tourists from [region] + visit [place]

Shirin took photos of the tourists feeding pigeons in the main square.

Common collocations
  • foreign tourists
  • international tourists
  • domestic tourists
  • tourists flock to
  • popular with tourists
  • attract tourists
  • busloads of tourists
Synonyms
  • visitor

    broader: anyone visiting a place, including for business or family, not just for pleasure

  • traveller

    suggests a longer or more independent journey; often implies less of a packaged-holiday feel

  • holidaymaker

    British, focuses on people on a vacation, often at a resort or seaside

  • sightseer

    specifically someone walking around to look at famous places or buildings

Antonyms
  • local

    a person who lives in the place that tourists visit

  • resident

    more formal: someone who has their permanent home in that place

Grammar Patterns

a tourist from [country/city]

tourists visit [place]

Usage Note

Subject is usually a person identified by their origin (a Japanese tourist, a tourist from Brazil) or by group size (a group of tourists, busloads of tourists). Often appears with verbs like attract, welcome, show around, and prepositions to / in / from a place.

Common Mistakes

I went to Paris as a tourism last summer.
I went to Paris as a tourist last summer.
'tourism' is the activity or industry; the person who travels is a 'tourist'.
My uncle is a tourist guide in Bali.
My uncle is a tour guide in Bali.
the standard term for the job is 'tour guide', not 'tourist guide'.

2. a player belonging to a national or club squad on an organised overseas trip to

2.nounC1
Definition

a player belonging to a national or club squad on an organised overseas trip to play a fixed run of official matches against local sides, especially in cricket or rugby.

Example

The tourists arrived in Wellington two days before their first test against New Zealand.

the tourists (visiting team) + arrive/play in [country]

Ezra scored a century for the tourists on the opening day at the Sydney ground.

score [stat] for the tourists

Common collocations
  • the tourists won/lost
  • the touring tourists
  • tourists' captain
  • tourists' opening batter
Synonyms
  • touring side

    very common in cricket and rugby writing for the same group of players

  • visiting team

    neutral, works for any sport; not limited to international tours

Antonyms
  • home side

    the team based in the country where the matches are being played

  • hosts

    the team or country welcoming the visiting players

Grammar Patterns

the tourists (referring to the visiting team)

the tourists played + [home team]

Usage Note

Almost always plural and used with 'the': 'the tourists' refers to the entire visiting squad as a unit. Distinguish from sense 1: here the people are professional athletes on duty, not holidaymakers. Most common in British sports journalism, especially cricket and rugby reporting.

Common Mistakes

He is a tourist of the English cricket team.
He is touring with the English cricket team.' or 'He is one of the English tourists in Australia.
this sense works as a group label, not as a one-person description with 'a/an'.

Word family

  • tour
    nounA2
  • tour
    verbB1
  • tourism
    nounB1
  • touristy
    adjectiveB2
  • touring
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All five words describe someone who is not from the place they are in, but the focus differs. 'Tourist' is the everyday word for a person on holiday, often as part of a group, who is there mainly to enjoy themselves and see famous spots. 'Visitor' is the most general — it covers anyone coming to a place for any reason, including business meetings or family events, so a museum's 'visitors' need not be on holiday. 'Traveller' suggests a longer, more independent trip with less of a packaged-tour feel; backpackers tend to call themselves travellers, not tourists. 'Holidaymaker' is mostly British and stresses the vacation purpose, often pictured at a beach resort. 'Sightseer' zooms in on the activity of going from one famous place to another with a camera. So in Kyoto, the bus group photographing the temple are tourists or sightseers; the architect there for a one-day conference is a visitor; and the student spending three months hiking the country is a traveller.

tourist ↗visitor ↗traveller ↗holidaymakersightseer ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • tourist attraction
  • tourist destination
  • tourist information
  • tourist season
  • tourist trap
  • tourist visa
  • tourist guide
  • tourist industry
  • tourist board

Phrases

  • a group of tourists
  • popular with tourists
  • swarms of tourists
  • attract tourists
  • the tourist trail

Prepositions

  • tourist from [country]
  • tourist in [city]
  • tourist to [destination]

Etymology

GreekLatinOld FrenchEnglish

Borrowed into English in the late 1700s from the noun 'tour' (a circular journey) plus the suffix '-ist' (a person who does something). 'Tour' itself came from Old French 'tour', meaning a turn or circuit, which traced back to Latin 'tornus' and Greek 'tornos', a tool for drawing circles. The word spread quickly during the era of the Grand Tour, when wealthy young Europeans travelled around the continent for education and pleasure, giving the modern leisure-travel meaning we use today.