Your teacher was wrong. When someone visits a country, a city, a place, what is most important is not the majesty of tourist attractions but it is the feelings and the emotions you come across in the street, in daily life. I have always found a city more interesting when you are there not to just look around, but because professionally you have an agenda. Getting lost in Chengdu China in June one night was more fascinating than anything else, especially since I do not speak nor read one word of Chinese.