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Backpackers: The next generation?
3 Methodology
The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the older guests
currently using New Zealand’s small backpackers’ accommodations, as well as
to explore theories regarding why more older travellers are not using these
facilities. The research questions explore how the travellers perceive of
themselves; what are their reactions to the term “backpacker” and its related
terminology; what are their motivations for choosing these accommodations;
and what are their needs and preferences (and why). In addition, the thesis seeks
to review how the industry is responding to older backpackers with both
facilities and marketing.
Prior research by Cave et al. (2007) that addressed, in part, older travellers’
needs and levels of satisfaction with backpackers’ accommodations and hostels
was quantitative by design. It was etic in nature, which Pearce and Lee (2005, p.
3) comment is “where the researcher, as an observer and outsider, classifies and
describes the tourist’s behaviour”. It could not, due to its very structure, provide
in-depth, thick descriptions of travellers’ choices and preferences. Thick descriptions
are described by Geertz (1973) as explanations of not only behaviour, but of
context as well. Alternatively, Pearce and Lee (2005, p. 3) note that emic research
involves “finding out from [the tourists] how they see the world, how they look
at the setting, the other people in it and the value of their experience”. Morse
and Richards (2002, p. 28) support that view, commenting that, “if the purpose is
to learn from the participants in a setting or process the way they experience it,
the meanings they put on it, and how they interpret what they experience, you
need methods that will allow you to discover and do justice to their perceptions
and the complexity of their interpretations”. A qualitative approach was
therefore decided upon to explore and understand these travellers’ decision-
making processes.
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