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Backpackers: The next generation?
young people he interviewed are travelling in reaction to alienation to their
modern societies. Maoz suggests that it may be age- and experience-related;
within her own studies of Israeli backpackers the degree of alienation from
society was more influenced by personal life stages, with older travellers being
more alienated than younger (Maoz, 2004, 2006).
Uriely, Yonay and Simchai (2002) analyse backpackers’ motivations further,
contending that there is a difference between form- and type-related attributes in
travel, and that backpacking’s form-related attributes – length of excursion,
flexibility of itinerary, tendency towards low spending – predominate over its
type-related attributes – the psychological attitudes toward native country,
motivations for travel, and meanings they assign to their experiences. They
suggest that backpacking should be considered a form, rather than a type, of
tourism.
This thesis continues these discussions, probing for levels of alienation voiced by
respondents. Why are they backpacking, and indeed, why are they travelling at
all? What are they seeking, and what meanings do they assign to their travels in
New Zealand?
Gathering places: The growth of mainstream backpacking
Vogt (1976) spoke of the need for gathering places, places in which travellers can
physically and psychologically recuperate from wandering by being amongst
people with similar values and interests. Cohen (1973) and Vogt (1976) early
recognised that these havens created the very institutionalisation of services and
facilities that drifter tourism initially rejected. By the late 1980s, backpacker
establishments were filling the market with beds. In Cairns, the first
independent backpacker lodging opened in 1983, and 42 existed by 1988
(McCulloch, 1991; Slaughter, 2004). In Wellington, the market grew from 150
beds to 500 between 1988 and 1991 (Doorne, 1994). The industry began feeling
the economic impact of backpackers. Pearce’s 1990 acknowledgement of
backpacking as a social – and economic – travel phenomenon began moving the
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