I was doing some research for my research design paper and in the process came across an article entitled Backpackers as a community of strangers: the interaction order of an online backpacker notice board (freely accessible PDF). Apart from piquing my curiosity as an interesting read, it seemed vaguely related to the issues surrounding buzz/currency and use of travel guides, etc.
It found that backpackers constituted a heterogeneous group with respect to the diversity of rationales and meanings attached to their travel experiences.
I found that statement to be one of the most crucial that applies to working with backpackers. At the same time, it’s probably one of the ones least considered by those marketing to backpackers. There is no one thing that ‘backpackers’ like. There may be certain similarities and tendencies but so often I’d hear “backpacker special” and couldn’t think of anything I’d want to do less!
The article went on further to state:
Backpacking differs from the generic idea of tourism or ‘the tourist’ because the backpacker is expected to court risks purposively rather than to avoid them (Giddens,1991: 124). It is important to note here the difference between acceptable and avoided risks. Acceptable risks are those that are self- imposed and ‘controlled’ by the individual as distinct from avoided risks that are imposed by others (Reith, 2003).
I think this is one of the crucial distinctions that places backpackers firmly among allocentric tourists and contributes to the tourist v. traveller debate. I think in many cases the backpacker (myself included) chalks up some degree of risk to the name of exeprience rather than as a negative.
All in all a good read. Wish it fit my paper slightly better. I didn’t come away empty handed though, found a wonderful article about the characteristics surrounding backpacker enclaves. Now I just need to sit down and do the analysis of the article. Procrastination is a wonderfully horrid thing.
On a mostly unrelated note, Networth IQ: track, share and compare net worth. I just signed up for it after reading about it and it seems interesting to play with. I already have an idea of the figures from Quicken but I think I’ll play some with this too.
Unrelated it may be, but thanks for the link and signing up for NetworthIQ. Feel free to let us know what you think.
OK apparently some of my (unintentional) pings are working even though a manual one to Technorati is not. *Ponder*
No problem, I definitely will let you know what I think. I haven’t yet been able to play around with it because I had the confirmation sent to my home address rather than my webmail. I expect to get to use it in the next couple of days.
Thanks for the comment!