In my opinion there is definitely a border between tourism and travel. I believe this has to do mainly with the idea of authenticity, not only of one’s experience while they travel, but if the world is acting in its normal state despite the introduction of the traveler. This idea is dealt with at the beginning of the Introduction to Travel Writing. In order for a writer to write a travel writing piece, the experience has to be authentic. The writer has to try and integrate into whenever they go and much of what they need to write about comes from that attempt to integrate . Where did the difficulties come from? Were there any extremes that made the writer feel so uncomfortable they wish they weren’t there? It’s these kind of data that separate travel from tourism.
Now i am not saying that the border is clearly visible. Like in the case of Chernobyl, there were a laundry list of hoops the writer had to go through to travel through the radioactive city, which included a translator and tour guide. In my mind these would usually make the experience a mater of tourism but if it is a necessary step, the i could still these step as a means of authentic travel. In closing, the thing that separates travel from tourism is the sense of the individual trying his or her’s best to integrate with the environment around them and much of that is taken away if they simply rely on tourism ideas.