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Backpackers: The next generation?
but their pre-formed imaging about backpackers’ accommodations and hostels,
created by experiences in the US and Europe, are negative. Words that come up
consistently about international facilities are “cheap”, “dirty”, “grubby”,
“grotty”, and noisy”.
In Germany, we don’t have much [sic] backpackers [accommodations].
They’re just youth hostels and people of my age remember how it used to
be: they close at ten o’clock, separate dorms, wardens. It’s like in the
military. It’s the reason a lot of people our age have the wrong impression
(Heinrich).
I think for many people backpackers is synonymous with youngsters,
typically Europeans in their gap years – late teens, early 20s – and a lot of
people expect that backpackers will be filled with a lot of drunken people
in this age…. [Partly] it’s the word ‘youth’ – you don’t see yourself
staying in one, do you (Louise)?
The least negative comment was from a Swedish subject, who said,
We have about the same standard in Sweden, but they all look alike. The
same curtains, the same beds – they’re identical. It’s easy for finding your
way around a kitchen or bathroom, but boring. And they’re expensive
(Erich).
Australia’s private backpackers’ accommodations, and even its YHA, are
potentially contributing to the image problems New Zealand’s industry faces.
Two different hosts told the researcher that the facilities in Australia offered
significantly lower quality than in this country; several travellers concurred.
I used YHA there, because I expected a standard, but it was the most
shocking experience I’d ever had. The facilities were crap, you didn’t see
the people at all who run the place (they don’t even live there!). …I can
tell you, if it had been visa versa [Australia before NZ], there’s no way in
hell I’d use backpackers here (Kim).
The 54 baby boomer tourists surveyed for this research were chosen by their
apparent age and general touristic appearance, but six had actually used
backpackers’ accommodations on at least one night of their New Zealand
holiday. These six individuals used words like friendly, informal, budget, sharing,
freedom, great, and nice to describe their experience. The other 48 survey
respondents, travellers who knew the word “backpackers”, but had no personal
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