Beyond Backpacker Tourism: Mobilities and Experiences

Building on previous work on backpacking, this book takes the analysis of backpacker tourism further by engaging both with new theoretical debates into tourism experiences and mobilities as well as with new empirical phenomena such as the rise of the ‘flashpacker’ and alternative destinations. Chapters include material on flashpacking, the virtualization of backpacker culture, the re-conceptualisation of lifestyle travellers, backpackers as volunteer tourists, as well as backpackers' experiences of hostels, mobilities and their policy implications. It sets a new benchmark for the study of independent travel in the contemporary world.

Kevin Hannam is Chair of the ATLAS Backpacker Research Group (BRG). He is currently Professor of Tourism Development at the University of Sunderland, UK. He has published widely on tourism theory and is co-author of the text Understanding Tourism and co-editor of the journal Mobilities.

Anya Diekmann is coordinator of ATLAS Europe. She is Assistant Professor at the IGEAT and co-director of LIToTeS (Laboratoire interdisciplinaire Tourisme, Territoire et Societes), Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Her publications include work on social tourism and aspects of cultural tourism with a particular focus on heritage and ethnic tourism.