A tourist is someone traveling away from home to visit interesting places for enjoyment and learning. When your family visits the Grand Canyon or explores a historic city, you're tourists. Tourists might take photos of famous landmarks, try local foods, visit museums, or see natural wonders they can't experience at home.

Tourists typically stay in hotels, follow maps or guides, and visit the most popular attractions in an area. You can usually spot tourists in a city because they're looking up at tall buildings, studying maps, or taking pictures of things locals see every day.

Being a tourist means seeing sights and experiencing how people live in different places, learning history firsthand, and understanding the world beyond your hometown. A tourist visiting Washington, D.C. might tour the Capitol building and walk through the Smithsonian museums. A tourist in Tokyo might ride the bullet train and visit ancient temples.

People who live in popular destinations sometimes refer to the busy tourist season when visitors crowd the beaches or fill the streets, but tourism also helps local businesses and shares cultures between different parts of the world.