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Company/solitude/love
People play a vital role in the experience of place in The Sun Also Rises. With his friends Barnes is an expat and a writer. When mobs of tourists are around he and his circle resent the flood of foreigners into France, because they ruin the naturality of places. A place loses emotional value when it's too commercialized, when it is overflowing with people who did not stumble upon it and decide to "utitilize it" but who came for a superficially authentic experience. It is the way you treat the places you visit that makes the distinction between tourist and traveler.
Alone, i.e. when absorbed in though and not socializing, Jake is a traveler. He continually describes the scenery and the weather and the people on the trip to Spain. Similarly in Paris he talks about what he sees in the cafes and on the streets. He has lived in the city for some time but he is still not quite a local. He is an expat. He works in Paris, drinks there, has friends there, but he describes his lifestyle as a traveler.
The few times Barnes deviates from his pattern of detached observation occur with Brett. When he is alone with Brett, he describes how the light falls on her. His visual perception of the world changes. This change in perception is a powerful tool in communicating the emotion of love and stands apart from the rest of Jake's narrative just as starkly as it stands apart from his usual hard-boiledness.
Jake: both a traveler and tourist
I think it’s interesting that you brought up the point that Jake is a traveler when he is alone. He is an expatriate, no doubt about that, and he connects to Europe sincerely, especially Spain (no wonder Jake’s original name was going to be Hem). His aficion, is a testament to that. But the fact that Jake can be so clearly identified when he is alone makes me wonder: could Jake then be characterized as something different when he is in the company of his friends? You brought up the good point that he is love-struck and different around Brett, but what about when he’s with the whole gang? The fact that the natives find them novel and exciting, because they are American and slightly different, (as shown during the initial fiesta days when all the Spaniards wanted to buy them drinks) shows something. Also, the fact that all they do is eat and drink in touristy/uppity cafes and enjoy the environment and party-like atmosphere without really learning the culture is also telling. They could choose to have authentic Spanish cuisine and wine and dine in the culture, rather than having the fanciest, and therefore most likely the most commercialized wines with their highly standardized meals. All in all, my point is that there might be the possibility that Jake is a traveler on his own, but with the group, he gets caught up in the mob mentality, and becomes a tourist once again.