No, the term "Travelers" for white gypsies, once known in the U.S. as "The Terrible Williamsons" (google it) until about the early 80s, and known in the U.K. as "Tinkers" for probably at least 150 years, goes way back BEFORE "political correctness" in the U.S. Gypsies are swarthy, dark-skinned "Roms" of colorful big-earring fortune-telling fame. Travelers -- a name they even use for themselves -- are gypsies in that they never stay put for more than six months (there are exceptions, such as the Irish traveler town in North Carolina, I think it is, and also a big clan of I think Scottish Travelers in Arizona somewhere). Their cons, unless they've changed, have been home improvement scams, all over the U.S., and they've been carrying on in the U.S. since at least the late 1800s.
There are basiclaly three kinds of Travellers. Irish travelers tend to live in trailer parks. Scottish travelers tend to live in very upscale luxury apartment complexes. I know very little about English Travelers, except that the few in law enforcement that know much about Travelers figure that the English are the least prosperous of Travelers. Travellers are ostentatiously "Christian," by the way, which rather fries THIS Christian's hide!! Just FYI.
There is a whole enclave of Irish Travellers in SC. They spend a good part of the year travelling all over scamming people on home repairs then they return to their posh homes for the rest of the year. They are totally bad news.
They don't tan well.
Now, the McCaffreys and McCafferties ~ ever hear of them? Similar practice but you'll find them more engaged in interstate autotheft, or sometimes actually working for mafia families.
One interesting aspect of the few Travelers I've met (or is that few "hundred") is they all suffer from some serious dental dysplasia replete with spare teeth. That's genetic. Kid who rode to grade school with me (liked to sit by me every day on the way home) had some gold fillings in a couple of his spares.