Anthony Bourdain is a tourist dork

[Above: The offending ad.]

OK, I’m sure Anthony Bourdain isn’t really a tourist dork, but I do take issue with the magazine advertisement for his new Travel Channel show, Without Reservations, which features the tagline “Be a Traveler, Not a Tourist”.

For starters, the traveler/tourist dichotomy has long been one of the most insipid obsessions of the travel world (since, as peripatetic guests in foreign places, we are all tourists, regardless of what we wear, where we eat, and which guidebook we use) — and to imply that one can shed the “tourist” mantle by watching a television show is positively idiotic.

Moreover, in the ad, Bourdain is shown clutching a red magic-marker in front of an aerial photograph of Paris, presumably having just scribbled little morsels of wisdom into the margins, such as: “Hungry? The Royal, a typical Parisian caf