The Global Nomad: Backpacker Travel in Theory and Practice
312
The Global Nomad: Backpacker Travel in Theory and Practice
312Hardcover
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781873150771 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Multilingual Matters Ltd. |
| Publication date: | 03/16/2004 |
| Series: | Tourism and Cultural Change , #3 |
| Pages: | 312 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d) |
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The Global Nomad
Backpacker Travel in Theory and Practice
By Greg Richards, Julie Wilson
Multilingual Matters
Copyright © 2004 Greg Richards, Julie WilsonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-873150-77-1
CHAPTER 1
Drifting Towards the Global Nomad
GREG RICHARDS AND JULIE WILSON
According to James Clifford (1997: 1) travel is arguably an integral part of the postmodern 'new world order of mobility'. Society as a whole is becoming more restless and mobile, in contrast to the relatively rigid patterns of modernity. One of the cultural symbols of this increasingly mobile world is the backpacker. Backpackers are to be found in every corner of the globe, from remote villages in the Hindu Kush to the centres of London or Paris. They carry with them not only the emblematic physical baggage that gives them their name, but their cultural baggage as well. Their path is scattered with the trappings of the backpacker culture – banana pancakes, bars with 'video nights' and cheap hostels (Iyer, 1988). The questions that this book sets out to examine are why do so many people become 'global nomads', what do they gain from their travel, and what impact do they have on the places they visit? The varied contributions to this debate analyse both the theoretical implications of the backpacker phenomenon and the practical implications that it has for tourist destinations, local communities and policy makers.
According to some authors (e.g. Westerhausen, 2002) growing numbers of people are reacting to the alienation of modern society by adopting the lifestyle of the backpacker. Their nomadic existence is supported by the increasing ease of international travel, a growing network of budget hostels and travel companies, and the increasing flexibility of life path and work patterns. The growing demand for backpacker travel has stimulated a dense infrastructure of services dedicated to their needs, from backpacker hostels to companies organising bus trips, and the 'backpacker's bible'; the Lonely Planet guide books. As international conglomerates such as Accor begin moving into the backpacker market, the global nomad is also being incorporated into the 'McDonaldised' system of conventional tourism.
Academic interest in the motivations and experiences of backpackers has also grown in recent years, particularly as their economic, social and cultural significance for a range of destinations has become recognised.
Although the term 'backpacker' has been used in the travel literature since the 1970s, the backpacker phenomenon has only more recently been widely analysed by academic researchers. An analysis of the bibliography compiled by members of the Association of Tourism and Leisure Education (ATLAS) Backpacker Research Group (BRG) indicates that of 76 dated references relating to backpacker and youth travel, only 11 were published before 1990. This was the year in which the term 'backpacker' was first noted in the academic literature (Pearce, 1990). The growing interest in the topic is underlined by the fact that the ATLAS BRG alone now has more than 30 members in 11 countries.
At least until recently, much of the backpacker research has been undertaken in countries where the impact of backpacking is particularly evident, notably in South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand (e.g. Elsrud, 1998; Hampton, 1998; Murphy, 2001; Ross, 1997). A second factor influencing the geographical distribution of backpacking studies has been the tendency for research to be undertaken 'on the road', usually in the more popular backpacker destinations in Asia and Australasia. Both of these patterns are reflected in the current volume, which draws most of its material from studies of popular backpacker destinations. It includes the first global survey of backpacking and combines diverse theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of this rapidly developing area.
In introducing the contributions in the rest of the volume, this chapter first considers the rationale for treating the backpacker as the 'global nomad'. An overview is then given of the research programme that stimulated the production of this volume, and finally the structure of the text and the individual contributions are outlined.
The Global Nomad
In the eyes of some commentators (e.g. MacCannell, 1976), tourism has become an icon of the rootlessness and alienation of modern life. The search for meaning in modern societies encourages pilgrimage to the sites of differentiation created by modernity and a search for the 'primitive' and pre-modern cultures it has displaced (MacCannell, 1992a). The disappearance of pre-modern cultures makes them all the more attractive as sites of tourism consumption and distinction – a chance to see the past before it disappears. Globalisation not only increases the speed at which cultures are marginalised, but also increases the speed with which the tourist can travel to see them. The presence of tourists around the globe is not only a sign of the progress of globalisation, it is also an integral part of the globalisation process. The presence of tourists ties more and more places into the global economy and modern communication networks. Tourists make the places they visit increasingly like home, which stimulates their restless search for difference still further (de Botton, 2002).
One of the cultures most under threat from the extension of modern society is that of the nomad. The nomad is:
the one who can track a path through a seemingly illogical space without succumbing to nation-state and/or bourgeois organisation and mastery. The desert symbolises the site of critical and individual emancipation in Euro-American modernity; the nomad represents a subject position that offers an idealized model of movement based on perpetual displacement. (Kaplan, 1996: 66).
The nomad therefore represents not just the 'Other' to be visited, but also an idealised form of travel as liberation from the constraints of modern society. The global nomad crosses physical and cultural barriers with apparent ease in the search for difference and differentiation and in this way, the backpacker as nomad is placed in opposition to the 'tourist', caught in the iron cage of the modern tourist industry.
The sense of freedom offered by backpacking may well be one of its major attractions. As Binder and Welk show in their contributions to this volume, the ability to decide one's own itinerary, to change travel plans at will and not to be weighed down by cultural or physical baggage are features of travel important to backpackers (see also Chapter 2). The problem is, of course, that this freedom also has its own constraints, such as a lack of time or money, or the sheer physical impracticality of visiting all the sites one wants to see. The backpackers' freedom to travel also becomes a freedom to change the very places that they travel to see, as their own travel (however different it may be from that of the tourist) begins to impact on the 'unchanged' or 'authentic' cultures they want to visit. The backpacker is therefore forced into adopting a nomadic style of travel in an attempt to avoid other travellers – a strategy that is bound to fail, given the propensity of the Lonely Planet and other guide books to open up new destinations to hordes of other travellers also seeking to escape from each other. Not surprisingly, what many backpackers regard as an 'authentic' destination is one untouched by other tourists (Timmermans, 2002).
Backpackers therefore seem to be driven into the far corners of the globe by the 'experience hunger' of modern society (de Cauter, 1995), which also forces them into becoming nomadic. Once they have consumed the experiences offered by one place, they need to move on to find new ones. Just like traditional nomadic peoples, the global nomad constantly moves from place to place. Patterns of movement are also cyclical; well-trodden routes emerge between 'enclaves', the arenas or stages of the backpacker subculture. The research programme established by the ATLAS BRG in 2000 was therefore entitled 'the Global Nomad'.
The Global Nomad Research Programme
The basic motivation for setting up the BRG stemmed from a perception among several members of ATLAS (particularly in Asia and Australasia) that backpacking was becoming an increasingly important social, cultural and economic phenomenon around the globe. In spite of this, there was felt to be a lack of research dealing with transnational or transcultural issues. Members of the group are drawn from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including sociology, anthropology, geography, cultural studies, management and marketing. Current members of the group are drawn from eleven countries, with the UK, Australia and New Zealand having the biggest membership.
The first stage of the programme involved a review of previous research on backpacker tourism, which eventually provided the basis for the literature review by Ateljevic and Doorne in Chapter 4 of this volume. The bibliography underlined the fragmentation of the literature and indicated that many previous studies have been descriptive rather than analytical. The literature review also identified many gaps in previous research that the BRG has tried to address in its research programme.
Within the Global Nomad research programme, three main areas, or 'routes' were identified that were of interest to ATLAS BRG members, and these are described below.
Route 1: Where have the drifters gone?
In Cohen's (1973) classic typology of tourists the drifter is the archetypal backpacker, travelling to new destinations with no set itinerary. The restlessness of the drifter existence, with its attendant uncertainties, is arguably a good preparation for later life. Backpackers often see their travels as a form of self-development, in which they learn about themselves, their own society and other cultures. This knowledge can be used to advantage in the future – if you can survive as a backpacker, you can deal with any problems that life may throw at you later.
In theory then, backpacking should be a basis for success in later life. The ability to deal with uncertainty and change are arguably the very qualities required to operate effectively in postmodern societies. Backpackers might be expected to be more successful than their contemporaries who have not abandoned the security of their own society or culture. Yesterday's drifters should become today's movers and shakers.
But is this true? In order to test this proposition, it is important to look at the life history of former backpackers and see how their previous travel experience has impacted on their lives. Have backpackers been able to use their travel experience to develop their life chances? Does more travel experience lead to more success in life? Looking back, how do former backpackers reflect on their experiences? Are there common strands of experience to be identified?
In addition, backpackers can tell us a lot about how travel itself has changed. The journals that many backpackers keep are crammed with experiential and cognitive information about the reasons for their travels, the way in which they travelled, the people they met and the destinations they visited. By examining the travel diaries and stories of backpackers over a number of years, the changes in the nature of the backpacker experience in particular and of travel in general could be highlighted.
This route of the global nomad research concentrates on the following areas:
(1) Why do people become backpackers?
(2) What do they experience on their travels?
(3) How has the backpacking experience changed over time?
(4) What impact does backpacking have on later life?
These questions are particularly important given the perception that 'real' backpacking is a dying art (see Cederholm, 1999). Westerhausen (2002) also suggests that 'real' backpackers increasingly have to flee the onslaught of tourism. What changes in the nature of backpacking or its participants could explain this? What do these developments in backpacking tell us about the changing nature of society as a whole?
Route 2: On the beaten track
Backpackers, because of their 'nomadic' existence, are very difficult to monitor. In addition, the common image of backpackers as low-budget or even undesirable tourists has meant that there has been relatively little research on their activities in the past.
However, backpackers are an important element of the youth tourism market and growing incomes and freedom to travel are likely to make this market even more important in future. Backpackers are also crucial for certain destinations and certain types of travel products (such as coach travel, budget accommodation, 'student' travel - see Vance, Chapter 14). Backpackers also arguably set new travel trends, opening up new destinations and developing new markets, for example in developing destinations (Hampton, 1998; Scheyvens, 2002).
The decision-making process of backpackers is therefore arguably of significance for the tourism market as a whole. Because of the relatively long travel times and flexible itineraries of backpackers, they are far more likely than most other travellers to come into contact with previously-unknown tourist attractions.
To evaluate the activities and impacts of current backpackers in more detail, it is important to undertake transnational research that can track the movements of travellers between one destination and another, and examine their decision-making processes. This information should be of value to a wide range of tourism policy makers and marketeers.
This research route examines:
(1) Who are the backpackers?
(2) Why do they choose backpacking?
(3) Which destinations do they visit?
(4) How do they travel?
(5) What are their motivations for choosing specific destinations and travel routes?
(6) What sources of information do they use on their travels?
This research involves surveys of backpackers to different destinations, with standardised questionnaires to provide comparative data. In the current volume, the development of this questionnaire is discussed along with the findings of surveys of backpackers from different countries of origin (Richards & Wilson, Chapter 2) and a specific destination-based study in New Zealand (Newlands, Chapter 13).
Route 3: Tourists of the future
The global nomads of today are potentially the avid tourists of the future. Their backpacking experience will have an important influence on the destinations they choose to visit in later life, possibly with their families and friends. Attracting backpackers may therefore be seen as an important step in a long-term marketing policy for certain destinations.
In looking at travel by young people as part of the educational experience, this route will examine the role of backpacking in forming and changing destination image. Do backpackers have a more positive image of the destination as a result of their experience? Are they more likely to make a repeat visit in future?
By conducting a longitudinal study of backpackers before and after their travels in different countries, the effect of backpacking on destination image could be directly monitored. Attitudes to travel can also be analysed, such as the awareness of environmental, social and cultural issues in the destination and the impact of these on destination choice and modes of travel and accommodation.
The information generated by this research route could be used to assess the potential of backpacking as a learning experience for future travel, and the extent to which attitudes formed during youth travel are likely to influence future travel behaviour. The impact that working abroad has on on cultural attitudes is currently the subject of a joint study by ATLAS and the International Student Travel Confederation.
Figure 1.1 summarises some of the relationships being examined by the ATLAS BRG. In relation to this draft conceptual model, route 1 of the Global Nomad research programme is concerned with the activities and experiences of backpackers, as well as the contribution of backpacking to personal development. Route 2 focuses on the determinants and motivations of those participating, while route 3 focuses on feedback of experience into future travel choices (thus linking together routes 1 and 2). Taken together, these different research themes can hopefully produce a more holistic view of the phenomenon of backpacking.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Global Nomad by Greg Richards, Julie Wilson. Copyright © 2004 Greg Richards, Julie Wilson. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
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