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UWE RESEARCHER INVESTIGATES BACKPACKER SUB-CULTURE
What is it that motivates a person
to grab a rucksack and take off for an extended trip to
far-flung climes? How does backpacking affect someone's
future choices and lifestyle? Are there different types
of backpackers, and when is a traveller a tourist or a
tourist a traveller? To what degree do travel writers
inspire the choice of destinations and mode of travel?
These are just a few of the questions that Dr Julie
Wilson, a researcher at the Faculty of the Built
Environment at the University of the West of England,
will ask travellers in two of the world’s most
popular initial destinations for backpackers - Bangkok
and Sydney. Julie will go to Khao San Road in Bangkok and
King's Cross in Sydney, both renowned hostel magnets for
travellers about to embark on trips around South East
Asia and Australia. Her research is being undertaken in
conjunction with the Association of Tourism and Leisure
Education (ATLAS) Backpacker Research Group, which has
members across Europe, Asia, Australasia and North
America. Established in 2000, the group has since
embarked on a whole programme of research relating to
various aspects of backpacking, in its many forms.
Julie Wilson said, “Backpacker travel has been an
increasing phenomenon in the last 30 years or so, and
over this period, there have been many and varied changes
to this global activity. My research aims to understand
what different types of backpacker exist within today's
tourist markets, as it is more and more difficult to
treat them as a single group with entirely common
characteristics. For example, the worldwide growth in
Internet cafes and specialist student and budget travel
companies has had a huge impact on the type and form of
backpacking experiences. The research will also help
inform the travel industry so that they can target the
different markets, but more importantly, it will allow us
to understand what different types of impact that
different types of backpackers are having on the
destinations that they visit. Research has been done
before at the basic market level, for example - in terms
of how much backpackers spend on average, but not much
has been done to understand what it is that makes someone
get up and go and what it is that characterises different
styles of backpacker travel.
“I look at backpacking as a ‘sub-culture’
and have examined some of the more popular symbols of
this sub-culture, such as the Lonely Planet guides, a
backpack and tight budget and seeing how they applied to
different styles of backpacker travel. Certain 'assumed'
backpacker rituals, such as mixing in hostels and a
preference for higher-risk activities such as bungee
jumping and white water rafting are also of interest,
although is it no longer appropriate to make
generalisations about this very diverse group of
travellers. Many aspects of the backpacker experience
have changed dramatically over the past 30 years, for
example - in the 1960s and 70s, many travellers drifted
along the hippie trail overland, using all kinds of
transport. Nowadays, a traveller is just as likely to be
less independent and more organised - flying to a gateway
city like Bangkok on a student travel ticket, armed with
a big budget, a guidebook and a hotmail address. Another
important development seems to have been a desire to seek
out other backpackers, with the aim of exchanging stories
and experiences, as well as to hook up with new
travelling companions.”
Julie's research has been funded by the Royal
Geographical Society's HSBC Holdings Small Grant Scheme,
the Royal Society's Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust and a
grant from her faculty at the University of the West of
England.
Whilst in Bangkok for her research, Julie will also
present a paper, “Backpacker Icons; Influential
Nomads and the Formation of Backpacker Identities”
at the ATLAS Expert Meeting on Backpacker Travel.
International Student Travel Consortium (ISTC) and the
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) sponsor the meeting,
which will be attended by academic experts on backpacking
from the ATLAS Backpacker Research Group. Julie's paper
was co-written with Dr Greg Richards, of the University
of Tilburg in the Netherlands and it examines how
'literary nomads' such as Jack Kerouac, Ernest Hemingway,
Hunter S Thompson, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, Michael
Palin and Bill Bryson influence actual and potential
backpacker travellers. The focus is on how the work of
these authors (travellers who write as well as writers
who travel) reflects the symbols and identities of modern
backpacker experiences, as their books certainly reflect
different 'travel styles'.