Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 847­867, 2003
 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
0160-7383/$30.00
www.elsevier.com/locate/atoures
doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(03)00063-X
BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
Anders Srensen
Centre For Regional and Tourism Research, Denmark
Abstract: This paper presents an ethnographic study of the travel culture of international
backpackers. Their sociodemographic characteristics are described, the contours of a con-
cept of tourism culture are delineated, and on that basis, that of backpackers is outlined,
with particular focus on the key phenomenon of road status. The analysis of backpacker
tourism as a culture furthers the comprehension of change within the phenomenon.
Examples of factors of change include the guidebooks, the short-term backpackers, and in
particular the internet. This study demonstrates the merit of a dynamic concept of culture
where culture takes place whenever activated by social circumstances. Keywords: backpackers,
budget travelers, travel culture, concepts of culture, ethnography.  2003 Elsevier Ltd. All
rights reserved.
Résumé: Ethnographie des routards. Cet article présente une étude ethnographique de la
culture du tourisme international des routards. On y décrit leurs caractéristiques sociodémo-
graphiques, on y expose les grandes lignes d'un concept de la culture du tourisme et, par
suite, on brosse un tableau du tourisme des routards en se portant surtout sur le phénome`ne
clé du prestige de la route. L'analyse du tourisme des routards favorise la compréhension
du changement dans ce phénome`ne. Quelques exemples des facteurs de changement sont
les guides touristiques, les routards a` court terme et surtout l'internet. Cette étude démontre
le mérite d'un concept dynamique d'une culture qui est activé par des circonstances sociales.
Mots-clés: routards, touristes a` budget limité, culture du tourisme, concepts de culture, ethn-
ographie.  2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
To me, Khao San Road has got nothing to do with the real Thailand.
It's shops and hotels and restaurants and loads of people calling them-
selves travelers but being ripped off all the same. But it's got whatever
you need and some great food, and it's a good place to meet other
travelers. I always hang out in Khao San Road when I'm in Bangkok
(Timothy from Germany).
The Khao San Road area in Bangkok is probably the epidome of the
backpacker ghetto. South East Asia is the most popular region for
international backpackers; Bangkok is their main gateway to the
region; and when there, most head for the Khao San Road. The devel-
opment is spectacular: from two guesthouses in the early 80s, there
Anders Srensen is an anthropologist and a research fellow at the Centre for Regional
and Tourism Research in Denmark (Stenbrudsvej 55, DK-3730 Nex, Denmark. Email
<sorensen@crt.dk>). Apart from backpackers, his research activities include guidebooks,
rural tourism, generating markets, and tourism in peripheral areas.
847
848 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
are now several hundred in the area (Cummings and Martin 2001:231)
along with restaurants, travel agents, internet cafes, bookshops, and
more. Thus, the Khao San Road area strikingly illustrates the world-
wide growth of backpacker tourism during the past two decades.
Even so, few figures document this growth, although it is estimated
that backpackers account for 8% of international tourists to Australia
(Loker-Murphy and Pearce 1995), for the phenomenon escapes the
categories of conventional tourism statistics. Nevertheless, in lieu of
quantitative confirmation, various qualitative factors expose its devel-
opment, including a growing number of backpacker guidebooks, a
growing service infrastructure at home and abroad, accessories shops,
travel advertising, webpages and, of course, the sheer visibility of back-
packer tourism at the popular destinations.
The development is noted in the research literature. In 1972, Cohen
depicted the drifters of the 60s who shunned the tourism sector in
their quest for immersion in the host societies (1972:175­77). How-
ever, as early as 1973, Cohen described the Vermassung (growing mass
consumption) of drifter-tourism and how it supported the rise of an
alternative service infrastructure, a development also observed by
Turner and Ash (1975). The institutionalization of backpacker infra-
structure, destinations, and routes is further described by Cohen
(1982), Pryer (1997) and Riley (1988).
However, the institutionalization has not been accompanied by hom-
ogeneity among the users of the backpacker facilities. On the contrary,
this mode of tourism seems more composite and multifaceted than
ever. Even casual observation at favorite locations such as Khao San
Road confirms this. In this small area one can observe the interactions
and groupings of disparate characters such as well-educated young
Westerners on extended leave from affluent society, high school gradu-
ates on gap year travels, Israelis fresh out of military service, university
students on holiday or sabbatical leave, young Japanese in rite-of-
passage attire, ordinary holidaymakers, (ex-) volunteers from various
organizations, and the like. The heterogeneity is manifest, whether
viewed in terms of nationality, age, purpose, motivation, organization
of trip, or life cycle standing.
Scholars have commented on aspects of this heterogeneity (Loker-
Murphy 1996; Murphy 2001; Ross 1997b; Scheyvens 2002; Srensen
1999), and Uriely, Yonay and Simchai (2002) convincingly question
the notion of backpacking as a distinct and homogeneous category.
Indeed, the variation and fractionation make it all but impossible to
subsume all the above-mentioned individuals and groupings under one
uniform category, for it would be so broad as to be devoid of signifi-
cance. Nevertheless, if questioned, most of these individuals will gener-
ally acknowledge that they are backpackers or (budget) travelers, and
even those who do not accept such labels still relate or react to them.
The ex- or implicit recognition of the notions carries a significance
that reaches beyond an implicit dissociation from a tourist stereotype.
For with varying degree and intensity, these individuals connect to a
shared frame of reference whether this is a matter of identity, philo-
sophy, sense of belonging, or sentiments of shared values, and their
849ANDERS SRENSEN
partitioned and fractioned interaction produces meaning, which
influences norms, values, conduct, and other elements of the social
being.
This complex--the human systems of meaning and difference
(Clifford 1997:3) and the organization of diversity (rather than the
replication of uniformity) which produces structures of meaning
(Hannerz 1990: 237)--is at the core of recent advances in the concep-
tualization of culture. Therefore, it would seem profitable to utilize a
concept of culture in the understanding of backpacker tourism,
whereby backpacker culture is not only seen as the culture of people
categorized as backpackers but is also recognized as essential in the
continuous re-creation of the category of the backpacker.
The academic interest in backpacker tourism is growing. An increas-
ing number of publications focuses on the phenomenon (Cohen 1973;
Desforges 1998; Hutnyk 1992; Loker-Murphy 1996; Loker-Murphy and
Pearce 1995; Meijer 1989; Murphy 2001; Pryer 1997; Riley 1988; Ross
1993, 1997b; Scheyvens 2002; Teas 1988; Uriely, Yonay and Simchai
2002; Vogt 1976). Furthermore, several publications, while not fully
dedicated to the topic, thoroughly report on its various facets (Cohen
1982, 1989b; Errington and Gewertz 1989; Firth and Hing 1999;
Hampton 1998; Murphy 1999; Phipps 1999; Ross 1997a; Schwartz 1991;
Srensen 1999). Moreover, a number of publications more than briefly
touch upon backpacker tourism (Bhattacharyya 1997; Cohen 1989a;
Smith 1994; Turner and Ash 1975; Uriely and Reichel 2000; Wilson
1997).
The writings cover various matters, such as marketing, accommo-
dation, perception, motivation, guidebooks, terrorism, impact, and
development. In varying degrees, the writings touch upon norms,
behavior, and interaction among backpackers, thus contributing to a
growing understanding of the sociocultural aspects of backpacker tour-
ism on the road. Even so, an assessment of citations in the above publi-
cations reveals a high degree of dependence on a few sources on back-
packers' social interaction and culture. Cohen (1973), Teas (1988) and
Vogt (1976) are often cited. Most frequently cited is Riley (1988), to
date the most comprehensive introduction to backpackers whose travel
duration exceeds one year. The time factor disqualifies most present-
day backpackers, and the ability to represent all backpackers by means
of Riley's findings is thus doubtful. Nevertheless, her findings are often
cited as if they represent backpackers in general, rather than a hard-
core sub-segment.
Since then, little has been published in the way of holistic sociocultu-
ral studies of backpackers, despite the massive growth in the interven-
ing years. Scheyvens (2002:150) calls for detailed research on charac-
teristics of contemporary backpackers, and clearly the assessment
above identifies a gap in the academic coverage of their social interac-
tion and road culture, both in terms of time since the latest introduc-
tory studies and in terms of comprehensive studies of this trans-
national community.
This paper addresses this gap by means of an ethnographic study of
the travel culture of international backpacker tourism. The study
850 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
presents demographic and social characteristics of those studied. This
points to the need to employ a concept of culture in order to further
the analysis of the phenomenon. The preconditions for and contours
of such a concept are delineated, and on that basis, an ethnographic
account of the travel culture of international backpackers is outlined.
This perspective furthers the comprehension of both structures and
changes in this phenomenon, some of which are briefly touched upon
in order to refine the account. They include guidebooks, short-term
backpackers, and in particular the Internet.
Among themselves, the preferred term is traveler (Desforges 1998;
Errington and Gewertz 1989; Riley 1988) and less frequently back-
packer. However, since the former term often is used generically and
is fraught with connotations, the latter is used here.
BACKPACKER TRAVEL CULTURE
The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork. Since 1990, the
author has logged 23 months of participant observation among back-
packers. Eight spells of fieldwork, spanning from two to seven months,
have covered East Africa, India, the Middle East, North Africa, and
South-East Asia, while Europe was included in numerous brief forays
into the backpacker scene. This still leaves major regions uncovered,
in particular Latin America and Australia. Other studies partly remedy
this. Australia is well studied (Firth and Hing 1999; Loker-Murphy
1996; Loker-Murphy and Pearce 1995; Murphy 1999, 2001; Ross 1993,
1997a, 1997b), whereas the Americas are almost uncharted. Infor-
mation on regions not explored by the author has been gleaned from
various other sources (guidebooks, backpackers, travel writings, etc.),
but the study cannot claim global scope of primary data.
In ethnographic fieldwork, the emphasis is on exploring the nature
of social or cultural phenomena, rather than aspiring to test hypoth-
eses about them (Atkinson and Hammersley 1994:248). The validity of
ethnographic fieldwork is founded on the interaction with the subjects
studied and the social and cultural insight gained by this approach.
Typically, the ethnographic subject is delimited either by location, or
by cohesive continuous social interaction within a clearly defined
group with a limited changeover of individuals.
Backpackers fit neither of the two demarcations. Instead of pro-
longed social interaction within a stable group, whether mobile or
settled, they are characterized by impromptu social interaction within
a group of erratic composition with unceasing extensive changeover
of individuals. Methodologically, this makes it impossible to adhere to
the conventional ethnographic fieldwork framework of prolonged
social interaction with and observation of a given set of informants.
The un-territorialization of the backpacker community means that,
instead of prolonged interaction with the few, fieldwork has had to be
structured around impromptu interaction with the many. This made
fieldwork more dependent on interviews and other types of intensive
information extraction than would the case in a classic ethnographic
fieldwork.
851ANDERS SRENSEN
So far, fieldwork has resulted in 134 formal, semi-structured inter-
views, lasting from 45 minutes to three hours, and 22 semi-formal dis-
cussion sessions with between one and seven backpackers, lasting from
one to two-and-a-half hours. To these must be added hundreds of semi-
formal and informal interviews in the shape of extended conversations.
Interviews were secured at accommodation facilities, restaurants, bars,
and the like at both the popular and the more peripheral destinations,
during transport, or while on excursions (safaris, trekking, etc.). In
most cases, potential informants' affiliation to the backpacker com-
munity was immediately discernible, either by appearance, behavior,
or associates. In a few cases, initial questioning was necessary to verify
a person as a potential informant.
In all cases of formal interviews and in almost all cases of extended
conversations, the author was deliberately forthright about the ongo-
ing research and about his double role as both backpacker and
researcher. While initially this stance was a matter of research ethics,
it also produced research benefits, since the realization that they were
being studied often triggered interesting reflections and deliberations
from the informants. Many expressed interest in the research and dur-
ing or after the interview, asked about the results so far. On such
occasions, some preliminary findings or interpretations were shared
with them. This in turn would cause comments from the informant,
some leading to lively debates. In many cases, the most interesting data
came to light after the interview officially had ended.
The interviews and extended conversations constitute the tangible
substance of the fieldwork material. However, equally important for
the comprehension of backpacker tourism culture are the countless
observations and interactions while traveling among backpackers and
participating in their road culture.
Identifying Backpackers
Both popularly and in the research literature, backpackers are most
often characterized as self-organized pleasure tourists on a prolonged
multiple-destination journey with a flexible itinerary, extended beyond
that which it is usually possible to fit into a cyclical holiday pattern.
However, this description serves as a guideline only and cannot be
used to objectively distinguish backpackers from other tourists, for only
few match all the parameters throughout the trip.
For one thing, some now set out with a "starter kit", for instance
consisting of air-tickets, airport pick-up, transfer, and initial accommo-
dation in a gateway city. Combined with the fact that most backpackers
purchase organized excursions, safaris, treks, and the like during the
journey, this leaves the self-organization somewhat debatable. Some
trips include working spells (Riley 1988; Uriely and Reichel 2000),
which make the pleasure parameter equably debatable. The time para-
meter is also open to interpretation, since the idea of a prolonged
journey is highly individual. The only shared feature is that of `travel-
ing', the flexible multiple-destination itinerary. Even this is continu-
ously discussed among backpackers.
852 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
Thus, backpackers cannot be defined by means of unambiguous cri-
teria. Pearce argues that they are best defined in social rather than
economic or demographic terms, and points to criteria such as a pref-
erence for budget accommodation, an emphasis on meeting other
backpackers, and independent flexible travel plans (cited in Ross
1997a). If viewed as a social category, the term backpacker offers analyti-
cal qualities to supplement the predominantly descriptive use of the
term in the literature. For although many do not meet the descriptive
characteristics, these nevertheless describe how backpackers tend to
view themselves: they form the outline of a travel ideology. The cate-
gory makes sense from the insider's point of view. Being both an indi-
vidual perception and a socially constructed identity, "backpacker" is
more a social construct than a definition. As such, it is an obvious
object for ethnographic inquiry.
Demographic and Social Basics
Although more and more nationalities are represented, backpackers
are still predominantly of Western origin. The vast majority come from
North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe. Most
Europeans are from Northern Europe, while Mediterranean Europe
is underrepresented, as is the United States when taking the popu-
lation size into account. Israeli backpackers can also be found in large
numbers. Additionally, the number of Japanese backpackers seems to
be growing.
Several studies report on gender distribution (Loker-Murphy 1996;
Loker-Murphy and Pearce 1995; Murphy 2001; Riley 1988; Ross 1997a),
but results vary. Australian data suggest an even male/female split,
while the author's data from the developing world suggest a 60/40
male preponderance ratio, perhaps slightly higher in certain regions.
The vast majority of the backpackers are 18­33 years of age. The
impression is that most belong to a 22­27 age group, with more in the
above-27 than in the below-22 group. This fits nicely with the parallel
impression that many, if not most, have completed an education and
worked a couple of years before embarking on their first backpacker
trip. However, this picture might be changing. Field observations over
a decade indicate that it is becoming more widespread to go to distant
regions at an earlier age. Nonetheless, backpackers display an edu-
cational level equal to or above the general level in their country of
origin. A large share holds academic degrees. Additionally, in the case
of younger ones with no education, it is often a matter of not yet; most
intend to commence or complete studies after traveling.
Contemporary backpackers do not fit the description of drifters,
deviants and escapees depicted in a few publications from the 70s
(Cohen 1972, 1973; ten Have 1974). In general, they are (future) pil-
lars of society, on temporary leave from affluence, but with clear and
unwavering intentions to return to "normal" life. The steadfastness is
evident in terms of intended traveling time: almost all have a fixed
return date, typically defined by their flight ticket. Even those who
declare themselves unrestrained will, if prodded sufficiently, almost
853ANDERS SRENSEN
invariably display a fixed latest return date. Usual length of journey is
between two-and-a-half and 18 months; very few journeys last longer.
In fact, not many exceed 12 months, and an interval of four to eight
months accounts for most journeys. The lower limit of two-and-a-half
months also marks a socially defined boundary between "true" back-
packers and those who travel like them but are able to fit it into a
work/holiday pattern.
Temporarily, however, normal life is suspended. Many backpackers
are at a crossroads in life: recently graduated, married or divorced,
between jobs; such explanations are frequent when they are asked why
they travel (Riley 1988). Hence, much backpacker tourism belongs to
transitional periods of a lifecycle. However, whereas this can lead to
the conclusion that the transitional situation has caused the travel
(Graburn 1989; Riley 1988), this author finds that the reverse causality
applies. In-depth interviews revealed that, while the transitional situ-
ation was true, it was usually the other way around: travel wishes had
made the person quit the job, caused the breakup, or the like. Mark
from Britain explained it this way:
It's a question of now or never. Since graduating from University a
couple of years ago I've made good money, so I can afford to travel.
I thought that if ever then now, because ten years from now I may be
tied up with wife, kids, mortgage and all the rest of it. And who knows
if there will be anything special to see ten years from now. The differ-
ences between places or cultures disappear rapidly, they all become
more or less like us. If you want to see anything different from our
Western countries you have to do it quickly before it all vanishes.
The "Vanishing Worlds" in Mark's statement reverberate with the
impressions of urgency found in much tourism advertising. However,
this pull factor is matched by the push factor of urgency to go beyond
normality before it is too late. Mark is illustrative of the fact that usually
the transitional period is self-inflicted, brought about by the desire to
travel. In fact, this is more logical, since traveling usually is a planned
venture. Few have the necessary economic means to allow them to
rapidly realize decisions of prolonged trips.
Thus, many backpacker journeys can be described as self-imposed
transitional periods, and for many, self-imposed rites of passage. Such
an understanding of backpacker tourism is well in line with contempor-
ary scholarly views on rituals and rites of passage in modern societies
(Hughes-Freeland and Crain 1998; Rosaldo, Lavie and Narayan 1993;
Turner 1982, 1992). However, it would be erroneous to suggest that
self-imposed rites of passage are the only explanation. It is beyond the
scope of this paper to pursue a thorough contemplation of the rite of
passage facet of backpacker tourism. Nevertheless, it is important to
emphasize that, although the notion of self-imposed rites of passage
is illuminating as regards backpackers, many are not covered by such
a description. Besides, even for those who are covered, the question
remains why they chose to let the rite of passage take the shape of a
backpacker journey instead of something else.
854 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
While on the go, backpackers engage in a variety of social and rec-
reational activities. The diversity in preferences supports Loker-
Murphy's (1996) observation that they are not homogeneous in terms
of tourism motivation. The prevalence of some activities reflects the
dominance of youthful age groups, but the activities are not much
different from what can be found within other tourist segments.
If asked about companions, the great majority of backpackers will
answer that they travel alone or with one person (spouse, friend). In
the strict sense of companion throughout the trip, it is correct that
most backpackers travel alone or together with one person. However,
this apparently simple truth hides the fact that, in reality, a majority
of them spend most of their time in the company of other backpackers,
at favored places, and in impromptu groups formed along the road
(Loker-Murphy 1996; Murphy 2001; Riley 1988). It is quite common
to strike up a friendship with backpackers encountered on the road,
travel together for a few days or weeks, split, and team up with others
again. Friendships are created rapidly and travel groups are formed
and dissolved almost instantly. However, the behavior connected to
this social interaction is not unregulated. It is circumscribed by the
norms and values of the backpacker travel culture.
Conceptions of Culture and Ephemeral Backpackers
While the term culture is commonly used in tourism research, it is
interesting to note how rarely such a concept is employed in the study
of tourists and their behavior. Concepts of tourist culture are seldom
found in the research literature, and when used at all (Adler 1985;
Foster 1986; Nash 1979), the term most often appears descriptively.
Hardly ever is it employed to analyze, explain, or interpret aspects of
touristic behavior.
It seems reasonable to suggest that not all such behaviors can be
explained by norms and values brought along from home, or by the
liminal dimension of tourism (Lett 1983; Wagner 1977). In some cases,
it is possible to identify social structures, norms, and values which are
founded in the interactions among tourists. In such cases, a concept
of culture may be applicable, provided that the social interaction
among the tourists produces meaning, which in turn again affects
norms, values, conduct, and social behavior.
As regards backpackers, such a concept of tourist culture provides
a relevant framework, not least given the fact that many spend most
of their time together with fellow backpackers. These are continuously
replaced throughout the journey, yet the replacements share the same
touristic characteristics: an emphasis on self-organization and nomad-
ism, and plans flexible and subject to rapid change.
There is a double bind in this. On the one hand, the one thing that
backpackers have in common is their travel mode, and being strangers
in unfamiliar places, fellow backpackers are the most familiar strang-
ers. On the other hand, the travel mode is also the only thing that they
share with certainty. Hence, conversations are much centered on tra-
vel. Murphy finds that travel matters are the most important topic
855ANDERS SRENSEN
among backpackers in Australia (2001:55­57), and this author believes
it to be the case whenever backpackers congregate. Travel matters are
socially and practically important since they constitute the only certain
shared subject for conversation.
The fact that backpackers interact so much and maintain a conver-
sational focus on the subject of travel matters means that norms, con-
duct, hierarchies, and other aspects which are often analyzed by means
of a concept of culture, may emerge, take root, and be transmitted
from experienced backpackers to newcomers, even without fixed and
permanent societal institutions to facilitate the intergenerational trans-
mission. To view backpackers' social relations in this way is covered by
earlier concepts of culture, where it is perceived as social structures of
unification and subsumption, and where the individual human is
viewed as a representative of and bearer of a certain culture.
However, norms, conduct, values, etc. among backpackers are con-
tinuously negotiated, challenged, manipulated, and upheld or
changed through social interaction. The opportunity for this is
enhanced by the combination of, on the one hand, the continuous
replacement of backpackers within the community, and on the other,
a near absence of institutions that can hold and transfer meaning over
time. Whereas earlier concepts of culture fail to comprehend such
aspects, they are embraced by recent theoretical advances (Appadurai
1996; Clifford 1997; Fox 1991; Hannerz 1996; Olwig and Hastrup
1997), in which culture, rather than fixed structures of unification and
subsumption, is conceived of as negotiable, manipulable, and change-
able systems. Consequently, the individual is ascribed an active role,
as someone who produces culture rather than just representing it.
A concept of culture may improve the insight in settings where intra-
tourist social interaction is a marked characteristic. Such tourist cul-
tures can often be located in and delimited by means of the geographi-
cal scene for the interaction (for example, in a secluded resort). How-
ever, they need not be delimited by location: the enforced social
interaction within fixed groups on cruises or on organized tours pro-
vides mobile settings for tourist cultures to unfold. The two examples
parallel common anthropological conceptions of culture where it is
either "located" (the village, the territory) or "bounded" (a non-settled
group, such as nomads). In both cases the culture is `placed', by means
of location or group.
A backpacker culture, however, falls outside these two. Neither a
fixed place nor fixed group delimits it: this culture is neither located
nor bounded. Hence, in order to comprehend backpackers by means
of a concept of culture, it is necessary to move beyond the "placing of
cultures", and instead let the conception allow culture to "take place"
wherever that place is physically localized. In other words, culture must
be allowed to "travel" (Clifford 1997). Customarily, the concept of road
culture is empirically founded and descriptively used, namely to
describe the culture of individuals belonging to a certain category
(Adler 1985; Mukerji 1978; Riley 1988). In comparison, the concept of
backpacker travel culture employed in this study allows for the culture
continuously to create and re-create the backpacker as category.
856 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
Road Status
The importance of road status among backpackers is highlighted in
several studies (Errington and Gewertz 1989; Pryer 1997; Riley 1988;
Teas 1988), and a concept of travel culture furthers the understanding
of the phenomenon and its significance. Road status is obtained in
many ways: paying "local prices", getting the best deal, traveling off the
beaten track, long-term travel, diseases, dangerous experiences, and
more. In total, it comprises hardship, experience, competence, cheap
travel, along with the ability to communicate it properly.
An example of how road status is communicated is the worn equip-
ment and clothes that many backpackers display. This makes them
appear somewhat shabby to the outsider, while among themselves the
worn look asserts experience and endurance, since presumably it is
caused by travel wear. Therefore, clothes and equipment, which back
home would have been discarded, are often mended and used. The
reflections of Jane from Australia typify the ambivalence of simul-
taneous acceptance and critique of this status parameter:
There is a funny contrast between travelers' shabby clothes and their
perpetual use of showers. I was sitting in the backyard of a lodge chat-
ting to a Kiwi [New Zealand] girl when an American guy came out of
the shower wearing the most ragged T-shirt I've ever seen. I said to
the Kiwi girl: "Why doesn't he throw that rag away, it's not worth wash-
ing one more time." But she said "Oh no, he's very proud of that
shirt. They've been through a lot together!" And then we couldn't
help giggling, because in a way it is so ridiculous. But here I am, trying
to repair one of my own T-shirts and if it were back home I'd throw
it away immediately. I guess the [proverb] "fine feathers make fine
birds" applies to travelers as well although it's upside down.
The worn look may even be artificially created. Backpackers have con-
fided to the author how they intentionally smeared their backpack,
roughened their shoes and scuffed their other equipment shortly after
commencing traveling, so as not to appear to be untraveled.
The worn equipment also signals frugality, and thus ties in with the
most important road status factor; that of the ability to travel inexpen-
sively. This factor explains why backpackers are preoccupied with
budgeting, often excessively so, and certainly to a degree that goes
beyond the need to budget when traveling long-term. Most possess
credit cards and are better off money-wise than their appearance
implies. However, the ability to travel inexpensively signals road com-
petence; it signals that one knows the way around and knows how to
acquire things and services at non-inflated prices. Thus, to ask: "how
much did you pay," which in many Western settings is considered rude,
is perfectly legitimate among backpackers, for the exchange of infor-
mation about prices is not only a practical matter, it is also an exchange
of road status.
While the intention is often explained as a matter of not paying
more than "locals", what really matters is not to pay more than other
backpackers (Riley 1988). The following brief conversation between
the author and two new arrivals at a popular hotel illustrates the point:
857ANDERS SRENSEN
Informant: "Excuse me, can you tell us how much you pay here?"
Author: "I pay 200 baht for a single, including breakfast. How much
do you pay?"
Informant: "We pay 250 for a double, also with breakfast, so I guess
it's okay. We arrived yesterday, and I just want to make sure we don't
pay too much".
The above was the first contact between the author and the backpacker
couple, yet the "how much did you pay" question opened the social
interaction.
A peculiar consequence of this one-upmanship is that it is common
to lie about prices (Teas 1988). Almost all backpackers questioned
about this admitted to understating prices paid when passing on infor-
mation. Not only is this behavior expected, it is even accepted--within
limits. The limit to how much manipulation of prices is accepted,
before it impinges upon road status, is when the information is so
implausible that other backpackers feel compelled openly to question
the narrator's veracity. When this happens, the playful social setting
of status exchange collapses. Manipulations must be handled dexter-
ously, and since this dexterity signifies the socially accomplished back-
packer, it is in itself a status factor.
The deliberate scuffing of equipment and the understating of prices
are examples of how the one-upmanship of status exchange is influ-
enced by manipulating information. Similar manipulation can be
found regarding all aspects of road status: a bout of diarrhea is
upgraded to dysentery, the strenuousness of a bus journey is exagger-
ated, black market exchange rates are inflated, and the peripherality
of a place is embroidered on. Likewise, status exchange can be manipu-
lated by shifting to another set of status parameters (for example, from
money to health) where one might have a better chance of obtaining
peer recognition. Status parameters may even be challenged, for
instance by questioning whether spending a whole day bargaining for
the sake of two dollars really is worth the effort. Such a challenge is
often accompanied by attempts to refine the parameters in question,
or to introduce new ones.
Not all backpackers are equally preoccupied by road status. Typi-
cally, it is particularly important for those on their first trip, whereas
repeaters exhibit a more relaxed attitude. Moreover, road status must
be communicated deftly, since a too overt preoccupation with the sub-
ject is improper. Furthermore, it is not a stable affair. Not only is it
very volatile, but it also has to be continuously reestablished through
conversation and status exchange, since no fixed mechanism can con-
vey the individual's road status and no continuous social relations can
confirm and transmit previous ascertainments of it. It has to be com-
municated in every social encounter with a hitherto unknown back-
packer. It is precisely because of this that road status is important.
This continuous exchange is the key method by means of which the
numerous brief encounters with other backpackers are systematized
and embedded with meaning.
Therefore, road status is not permanent. It must be communicated
858 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
continuously, both in terms of asserting it, and in terms of defending
the validity of its parameters. The effect is that, even though status
exchange produces instant hierarchies, this must be described as "hier-
archization" as process rather than hierarchy as structure. Not only are
the hierarchies extremely volatile and transient, changing with subject
and exchange partners; in a way, it is also hierarchies without anyone
"on the bottom rung". For although status exchange is a challenge,
simultaneously it also confirms a shared identity, "us backpackers", dis-
tinct from both "locals" and "tourists". Therefore, road status also
serves as social glue, in that the status exchange serves as a mutual
recognition of someone with worthy norms and values. The hierarchiz-
ation process produces shared cultural identity.
Trails of Travel Culture
When questioned, most backpackers readily accept that traveling
contains elements of tourism, or is a mode of tourism. These findings
are contrary to Riley's, who found that all long-term travelers emphati-
cally rejected the tourist label (1988:322). The differences may be
explained by the fact that her informants had traveled for more than
a year. Another explanation can be found in the growth and insti-
tutionalization of backpacker tourism since Riley's study in the mid
80s. It has become increasingly difficult to sustain the image that trave-
ling and tourism are separate and different undertakings.
However, a closer look reveals that the differences between Riley's
and the author's findings may be a matter of degree. For, while
acknowledging a tourism dimension in their travel, most backpackers
nevertheless maintain a distinction between travelers and tourists. They
often position themselves as representatives of a better mode of tour-
ism, thereby sustaining a distinction between a backpacker "us" and a
tourist "other". Backpackers typically argue that they arrange things
themselves, whereas tourists are led or herded, and that, unlike the
tourist, they are able to get off the beaten track, find the unspoilt
places, and get a down-to-earth feel for the area (Desforges 1998).
In this way, this culture reinforces the importance that backpackers
place on nomadism, self-organization, and self-reliance. Therefore, it
is hardly suprising that not all travel methods convey equal status and
that overland trips convey more status than flying. The popular over-
land routes connect the favored destinations to form the main trails,
and many backpackers spend most of their time along these trails.
Here, hotels, restaurants, and other services are found. The popularity
of the main trails is reinforced by recommendations in the guidebooks,
which almost every backpacker carries. Additionally, "the grapevine"
(Murphy 2001), the exchange of information and tales among back-
packers, which in itself reconstitutes their social construction as ident-
ity, reinforces the popularity of certain routes.
Yet many backpackers spend some time off the main trails. This pat-
tern is culturally reinforced, since travel off the typical routes, experi-
ence of hardships, and perhaps discovering new places can be con-
verted into road status by sharing the information with others back at
859ANDERS SRENSEN
the main trails. The discovery of new places means that the trails are
not static. Others may decide to use the information and if enough
come along, lodgings and restaurants catering for the backpacker
purse may open, a service infrastructure comes into being, and a new
trail is established. Most often this does not happen, but on the other
hand it is usually this way that new backpacker trails and destinations
come into being. Obviously, changes of trails are also influenced by
other factors: political changes, civil unrest, terrorism, or wars may
close them or deter their use; conversely, restoration of peace, infra-
structure improvement, or policy changes may (re)open backpacker
trails.
However, the areas visited off the main trails need not be without
tourism development. In fact, and despite an ideology of "getting
beyond tourism", average backpackers are more likely to reject than
select areas which are uncharted in their terms. Most who travel off
the main trails do not head for the totally unknown but stay within
or near the locations described in their guidebooks. The author has
frequently heard backpackers argue, when discussing plans, that "We
can't go there, it's not in the book".
Alternative Guidebooks
You know, Richard, one of these days I'm going to find one of those
Lonely Planet writers and I'm going to ask him, what's so fucking
lonely about the Khao San Road (Garland 1997:194)?
The alternative guidebooks serve an important function in the back-
packer culture, as the only fixed structure with the ability to hold and
transfer information and culture from one cohort to the next. Pre-
viously, users of such guidebooks were almost exclusively backpackers
but, in recent years, the range of users and titles has expanded mass-
ively. However, many of these publications still exude a distinction simi-
lar to the one that backpackers display towards the tourist. It does not
take much textual analysis to realize that the alternative books thereby
guide and support backpackers' perception of identity, by more or less
subtly confirming a distinction between them and the "ordinary" tour-
ist.
The growth of backpacker tourism and the alternative guidebook
publishing success share a common history. The importance of the
latter for the growth of the former can hardly be exaggerated. The
emergence of alternative guidebooks helped open wider horizons, in
particular for backpacker tourism in developing countries, and for the
many who, without a guidebook, might not have taken the leap into
the developing world.
Of the alternative guidebooks, those from Lonely Planet arguably
are the most used, probably have the widest geographical coverage,
and undoubtedly are the most criticized. However, the critique is not
so much caused by the actual publications and their content as by
the symbolic position that these guidebooks occupy in popular debate.
860 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
Because of its global coverage and popularity, Lonely Planet symbolizes
a certain style of guidebooks and users. In the Western tourism debate,
in which an alleged self-righteousness of backpackers has been the tar-
get of much critique and derision (Scheyvens 2002), Lonely Planet has
come to symbolize the backpackers, their activities, norms, and values.
Whether or not the critique is justifiable, the influence of Lonely
Planet is incontestably important. Nevertheless, even in certain circles
among backpackers, guidebooks are much scorned and seen as a sym-
bol of the lesser traveler, as is vividly described in the novel The Beach
(Garland 1997). Tellingly, the above quote is from a chapter titled
"Bible bashing". Moreover, while most backpackers use a guidebook,
many also participate in varying degrees of bible bashing, ranging from
pointing out flaws and faults, to claiming non-user status. Ironically,
bible bashing thereby enters the sphere of road status and becomes yet
another parameter in the exchange of road status, as well as a revealing
cultural self-critique.
The Internet
The Internet has had a notable impact upon backpacker tourism.
On the world-wide-web, information and opinion about tickets, routes,
destinations, and more is available on numerous home pages, as are
views on this type of tourism and its consequences. The impact of pre-
travel internet use upon actual backpacker tourism may be modest,
but on the road it is profound.
Internet cafes abound at backpacker destinations and the impor-
tance of this aviailability is evident in the latest guidebook editions,
where internet access and prices are treated evermore thoroughly.
Backpackers use the Internet for tourism information and for news
sites from back home. Additionally, some use it to check bank
accounts, file tax returns, and similar practical matters. But above all,
backpackers use it for email communication.
Most backpackers use a free email address and check for messages
daily whenever possible. Email has replaced letters and surpassed the
telephone as the means of contact with friends and relatives back
home. In 2000, post office staff at a popular backpacker destination
informed the author that, since 1997, poste restante mail had all but dis-
appeared.
The Internet also facilitates communication between backpackers.
Email addresses are frequently exchanged with other backpackers
encountered on the road. Some of the addresses may never be acti-
vated, but others are, and communications are continued while trave-
ling. In some cases, itineraries are adjusted to allow meeting again.
Communication is also continued between pre-arranged travel part-
ners who plan to meet at a later date. In both cases, the coming of
the Internet has caused a near-revolution of scheduling flexibility. Pre-
viously, meetings with other persons were either coincidental, as when
encountering other backpackers again along the same route, or
planned in advance, as when joining someone at a prearranged time
and place. Compared to this, the Internet enables a running contact,
861ANDERS SRENSEN
which enables continuous adjustment of itineraries. This includes
more flexible options for travel partners to temporarily separate and
later reunite.
Many backpackers manage fluid social networks via the Internet,
consisting of people at home, traveling friends from back home, back-
packers encountered on the road, and the occasional "local" friends.
New email addresses are registered; some are activated and maintained
in use, others wither away. While evidence is scant, it would seem that
many ex-backpackers maintain this virtual travel network for some time
after end of trip, albeit slowly fading. In this way, the Internet, while
not necessarily eliminating ex-backpackers' problems with readjust-
ment to normal life back home (Riley 1988:325), nevertheless has
reframed the conditions for readjustment, by changing the distinction
between home and away. One can maintain part of one's backpacker
identity, even when not traveling, by communicating with those still
on the road or recently returned home.
The impact of the Internet reaches beyond practical matters in other
ways. The technical changes have affected the way in which the whole
backpacker experience is framed by the communication with "back
home". The ceremony-like steps that backpackers previously had to
perform to obtain the desired communication via traditional tech-
niques (for example, visiting a post office box to collect poste restante
mail and send letters), in themselves confirmed the limited access to
such communication, thereby confirming a distinction between "here"
and "back home", and underlining the liminal "out of time and place"
(Turner 1970, 1982; Wagner 1977) character of the backpacker experi-
ence.
In comparison, the recurrent communication with the home
environment that the Internet enables confirms the connection, rather
than the distinction, between "here" and "back home", between the
present backpacker situation and the non-backpacking normality. In
this way, the impact of the Internet may reach far beyond technical
matters of communication. It is likely to impact on conceptions of dis-
tance, and to impart a change in the comprehension and framing of
the type of liminoid experience which backpacker tourism typifies.
Short-term Backpackers
A final example of change, in which practical, institutional, and cul-
tural aspects of backpacker tourism interact, is short-term backpackers.
These are individuals who travel backpacker-like, but within the time
limits of cyclical holiday patterns. They behave as ordinary backpack-
ers: they interact socially with other backpackers, stay at the same
places and travel along the same trails, even though they naturally
cover less ground during a trip.
Short-term backpackers are not a new phenomenon. However,
recent fieldwork data and information from specialized travel agents
indicate a strong growth of this segment, possibly stronger than that
of backpacker tourism in general. This may partly be explained by
declining prices on long-haul air tickets. Obviously, this is important
862 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
for the growth of backpacker tourism in general, but it is particularly
important in the case of short-termers. Since a return ticket takes up
a larger share of the total cost of the trip for them, reduced prices on
air travel result in greater reduction of their per day cost of trip.
Yet fieldwork data indicate that other factors need to be considered
when investigating the growth of short-term backpacker tourism. In
particular, it is noteworthy that many have previous experience. They
know how the system works, and are able to switch rapidly into back-
packer mode. Moreover, many explained to the author that they delib-
erately sought this mode, partly thanks to the social interaction among
backpackers, partly thanks to a perceived higher degree of indepen-
dence and flexibility, which previous backpacker experience had
taught them to value highly.
The short-termers subgroup indicates a growth potential of back-
packer tourism; it also acts as a reminder of how the backpacker experi-
ence may influence the individual's future patterns of tourism demand
and consumption. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that a spin-off
of the growth of backpacker tourism in recent years may be the cre-
ation of a similarly large growth potential for short-term backpacker
tourism in the coming years.
CONCLUSION
If I had to define my belief in travel it's that if you've been some place
and stayed in the local Hilton, you've probably not been there (sorry
Conrad). Tourists stay in Hiltons, travelers don't. [They] want to see
the country at ground level, to breathe it, experience it--live it. This
usually requires two things the tourist can't provide--more time and
less money (Wheeler et al 1992:35).
This paper has presented an ethnographic outline of the travel culture
of international backpackers tourism. It has been argued that the ana-
lytical use of a concept of culture advances comprehension of the back-
packer phenomenon. Such a concept furthers the understanding of a
phenomenon that, on the one hand, is so vast and diverse as to be
beyond subsumption under a distinct description, yet, on the other
hand, does display widespread affinities, behavioral similarities, social
interaction that produces systems of meaning, and a connection to a
fluid shared frame of reference.
This approach extricates the analysis from some of the problems
that a strict definition of backpackers would involve. If they were to
be identified by means of a rigid definition, it would either eliminate
many individuals who view themselves as such, or necessitate a defi-
nition so far-reaching as to be devoid of explanatory prowess. Instead
of defining them by means of fixed criteria, the cultural angle enables
the backpacker to be viewed as a socially construed category, involving
both self-perception and peer recognition. The main dimension of
peer recognition is the social interaction with other backpackers,
through which the backpacker identity is concomitantly formed.
863ANDERS SRENSEN
Road status was identified as a key phenomenon for the comprehen-
sion of backpacker tourism culture, and although more complex than
striving to live up to the ideology, the culture nevertheless is beholden
to values as represented in the quote above. Taken from an older edi-
tion of a backpacker icon, the Lonely Planet South East Asia on a Shoe-
string, the excerpt presents an accentuated and condensed example of
backpacker travel ideology.
At the same time, the fact that it is necessary to turn to a decade-
old edition also signifies the ongoing changes in backpacker tourism.
The un-territorialized "us travelers" community, which Wheeler et al
implicitly addressed, does not exist anymore (if it ever did). While
maintaining values of distinction that supported a sense of community,
the guidebooks have simultaneously facilitated the rapid expansion of
the market, and this growth has made the backpacker environment
too large to be sensed as a unified community. This is certainly the
case at popular locations, where the environment is so large as to
necessitate individual partitioning, whereas social interaction is more
forthcoming and less discriminating in less popular locations with less
choice of interaction partners.
As a more modern change, lately the Internet and email have
allowed the individual backpacker to invoke a personal virtual com-
munity to supplement face-to-face interactions. This enables a more
selective choice of partners, which again facilitates partitioning. With
the Internet, new dimensions have become part of the evolution of
backpacker tourism; this has not halted its institutionalization, nor has
it necessarily been accelerated. Rather, the Internet has changed the
direction of the institutionalization. Whereas this process commonly is
taken to imply standardization, uniformity, inflexibility, and pre-
dictability, the Internet has by contrast occasioned an institutionaliz-
ation that includes increased scheduling and planning flexibility as well
as communication ease. Yet institutionalization it is, since the Internet
has eased the access to and consumption of backpacker tourism, and
since the medium in itself rapidly has established an institutional pres-
ence among backpackers.
Beyond this, the Internet also demonstrates the changeability of
backpacker travel culture, and concurrently shows that, while the tech-
nological development has progressed with breakneck speed, the soci-
ocultural effects are to be viewed in terms of evolution rather than
revolution. Participant observation over a dozen years confirms that,
despite its development, the backpacker culture is still recognizable,
with or without the Internet. However, this paper has only briefly
touched upon this medium and its impact. Further research on back-
packers-online is definitely needed, both regarding use patterns,
online culture, and the impact of online communities on backpacker
consumption patterns.
Given the heterogeneity of backpackers, further research is also
needed on more specific subsegments. While many can be easily delin-
eated, this paper has touched upon the short-term backpackers. This
subsegment is particularly interesting since it exemplifies the con-
tinued growth and institutionalization of backpacker tourism, while
864 BACKPACKER ETHNOGRAPHY
simultaneously embodying the de-differentiation between backpacker
practices and associated modes of tourism. The short-term backpackers
and their interaction with other backpackers demonstrate the elasticity,
capaciousness, and adaptability of the phenomenon, yet at the same
time also demonstrate the need for a concept of culture in order to
fathom the simultaneous elasticity and constraint in the social con-
struction of the backpacker. More generally, the study of backpackers
demonstrates the merit of a dynamic concept of culture whereby the
individual both represents and produces a culture, and where it does
not necessarily need to be placed by linking it to a location or fixed
group but primarily can be viewed as "taking place" whenever activated
by social circumstances.
However, despite these useful refinements, it must be recognized
that the concept of culture, being both vague and fuzzy, is an innately
flawed construction. Clifford voiced the problem when stating that
"Culture is a deeply compromized idea I cannot yet do without"
(1988:10). In recent years Clifford and others have contributed to the
revitalization of the concept of culture by insisting on a de-territorializ-
ation of its propensities, thereby allowing culture(s) to travel. Yet it is
interesting to note that, despite the cognation between travel and tour-
ism, the revitalization of the concept of culture has not been much
inspired by insights from the tourism study. Allusions and anecdotal
exposés apart, the revitalization has largely ignored this domain, and
the theoretical and conceptual advances have not been challenged and
tested by means of the tourism phenomenon.
Therefore, the future involvement of tourism research in the overall
development of the concept of tourism culture will prove valuable for
social science in general, and for the tourism research domain in parti-
cular. Perhaps more than any other within social science, this domain
is confronted with the necessity to comprehend matters of placeless-
ness, ephemeral presence, spatial movement and the like. Further con-
ceptual development is thus essential for an improved understanding
of matters to do with tourism as culture, culture in tourism, culture of
backpackers, and of course, tourism cultures. A
Acknowledgements--The author was in Bali on October 12, 2002, as a teacher on a study
tour. He wishes to dedicate this paper to the memory of three of his students: Lrke
Ccilie Bdker, Anette Overgaard Jensen, and Lise Tanghus Knudsen. These three
young Danish women perished in the terrorist bombing, along with more than 190 other
innocent victims.
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Submitted 8 June 2001. Resubmitted 16 September 2002. Accepted 30 January 2003. Final
version 11 March 2003. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Erik Cohen