Tourism = good or bad? Me = tourist or traveler?

Tourism, in my opinion, is both good and bad. However, I believe there are more good aspects than bad ones in tourism. Tourism is bad when it is poorly managed, but it is just like anything that is poorly managed. Tourism is real bad when tourists are bad. I hope people when traveling remember that they somewhat represent their country. 

Before I made up my mind whether I am a tourist or a traveler, I looked up the words in dictionary and asked whether friends at works and friends outside of work think of me as a tourist or a traveler. According to my dictionary, tourist is "a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure" and traveler is "a person who is traveling or who often travels". It seems to me that traveler is a broader term that includes tourist, which means, travelers travel not only for pleasure but also for other purposes such as religion, work...ect. Well, if that's the case, I am a traveler. When I asked people I know in Dublin this question, it at first occurred to them I was kidding them. After thinking about the different connotation behind tourist and traveler, most of people I asked said I was a traveler. And that really pleased me...yes. I think my 10 week experience is quite different from one week of intensive traveling around Ireland. It is the lab work experience, the local people I work with, and the local people I hang out with and listen to their stories. It is a small apartment that I call home for 10 weeks, and a near by supermarket that I go for food. It is an art gallery that I spent hours getting lost in it, and a small cafe that I enjoyed 2 latte for 3 hours on a lazy Saturday afternoon. It is the public transit and streets that I get to know, and even show some tourists how to get around (for this, I am quite proud of myself since I'm normally not that bright at direction). I even got a Dublin Public Library card. There are lots of things that a tourist miss out and I get a chance to experience. And for all these, I'm glad to say I am a traveler. But like I said earlier, traveler is a broader term that includes tourist, so no matter what I am, I try to be a good one. 

As a traveler, I obviously enjoy traveling, and my definition of traveling is living in a country for at least a few months to a few years. And I plan to do nothing but just that.