Backpackers: The next generation? - Scholarly Commons Home

Backpackers: The next generation?
ride to a jet boat to roar down a river to meet your evening lake cruise.
The high-power / high-fuel usage was nauseating. New Zealand offers so
much without all that (Rita).
It’s changed very much, especially in the South Island, where it’s very
much in your face, “You are a tourist, let me sell you a package, let me
sell you a tour” (Louise).
An additional difference between these interviewees and younger backpackers
is the interest expressed in getting to know local people and cultures. Four
women engaged the interviewer in specific discussions about how to meet and
interact more with locals, particularly to explore the Maori culture. They wanted
to move beyond the “superficial” interactions they had experienced at major
tourism sites like Rotorua. Three of these had gone to small communities in
Northland or along the Eastern coast to stay for a period of days with Maori
families or on a marae.
Connection with locals appeared more important to most interviewees than did
daily interactions with fellow travellers. While the data showed clearly that most
older backpackers enjoyed social interaction with their fellow travellers, no
interviewees implied that these relationships were a primary attraction or
motivator. These older individuals did not change travel plans to travel with
others, or to “hang out” for additional days specifically to get to know one
another better. This is distinctly different than research emerging from younger
backpackers, who appear to be as intrigued by their peers as by the foreign
cultures around them (Murphy, 2001; Richards & Wilson, 2004a).
Cohen’s (2004a) touristic modes of experience are situated within the continuum
of seeking travel experiences that are recreational (inauthentic, but entertaining),
diversionary (escapes from boredom, but not meaningful experiences of
themselves), experiential (observing the lives of others, but not engaging deeply
with them), experimental (engaging with others’ lives, but not committing to their
realities) or existential (fully immersing in a different culture and moving away
from one’s own). The subjects in this research fall within in the middle of
Cohen’s continuum. They are concerned with authenticity, and attempt to
engage with both the natural environment and cultures of New Zealand in a
63