Beyond Backpacker Tourism: Mobilities and Experiences: 21 (Tourism and Cultural Change) - Tapa blanda

Beyond Backpacker Tourism is the newest edited volume to be produced by the Backpacker Research Group (BRG) of the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education. It follows Backpacker Tourism (Hannam & Ateljevic, 2008) and The Global Nomad (Richards & Wilson, 2004). While the editors stress they did not attempt to provide an ``exhaustive account of backpacker tourism research'' (p. 1), they nevertheless succeed in presenting a thorough picture of developments within backpacker research that is as enlightening as the two previous offerings. -- Benjamin Lucca Iaquinto, Monash University, Australia * Annals of Tourism Research 38 (2011) 723-743, 2011 * Beyond Backpacker Tourism provides a useful overview of the current state of backpacking and of the kind of research being undertaken on the subject. -- Frances Brown, Seabank, Maidens, Scotland, UK * Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 36, No. 1, 2011 * This excellent edited collection by international scholars clearly demonstrates the ongoing research agenda of backpacking. It offers a critical contribution by engaging with the changing dynamics of backpacking and examines a range of complex issues. A delightful find in this book is that, not only are the mainstream destinations discussed but lesser known areas (such as: Mongolia, Tanzania and Norway) are evident and add to the book's richness. -- Angela Benson, University of Brighton, UK

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.