Meaning & use
grief tourist
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabledisapproving
Someone who visits or follows a tragedy to satisfy curiosity or gain attention, not to help.
Grammar: Countable: one grief tourist, several grief tourists.
Patterns
- a grief tourist at something
- be accused of being a grief tourist
Locals said the crowds filming the flooded street were just grief tourists.
She was called a grief tourist after posting selfies at the memorial.
Real volunteers stayed to help, while the grief tourists left when the cameras did.
Word forms
| plural | grief tourists |
|---|
Common combinations
- accuse someone of being a grief tourist
- Online commenters accused him of being a grief tourist.
- grief tourism
- The disaster led to a wave of grief tourism in the small town.
- a crowd of grief tourists
- A crowd of grief tourists gathered outside the hospital.
- grief-tourist behaviour
- The article criticized the grief-tourist behaviour of some influencers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rubbernecker
- A rubbernecker slows down to stare at an accident; a grief tourist often goes further, seeking out tragedy and sharing it online.
- voyeur
- A voyeur watches private suffering for pleasure; a grief tourist may do it for clicks or a sense of drama rather than pleasure.
Word family
- grief tourism noun
- The practice of visiting places of tragedy out of curiosity.
Commonly confused: grief tourist or tourist?
grief tourist vs tourist
A tourist travels for pleasure in general; a grief tourist is specifically drawn to other people's sorrow.
Practice
He posted videos from the crash site and was quickly branded a ___.
Choose one answer.
'Grief tourist' is the critical term for someone who exploits a tragedy for attention. 'Sightseer' just means a person visiting interesting places and carries no such criticism.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grief tourist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.