Backpackers and other younger travellers to the Great Barrier Reef: an exploration of changes in characteristics and behaviours over time

The tourism literature offers a number of different themes related to defining and understanding the long stay, independent travel of younger people often, referred to as backpacking. This paper focuses on the two major themes of differences between backpackers and other tourists, and change over time in backpacking, through an examination of survey data collected from tourists to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 1996, 2001 (prior to the event of September 11) and in 2002 (prior to the Bali Bombing). Backpackers were compared to Other Younger Travellers at each of these three times on a number of variables including travel party, motivations, type of reef trip chosen, and satisfaction. The results supported three main conclusions. Firstly, Backpackers differed from Other Younger Travellers on a number of variables and they retain some of these differences over time. Secondly, both groups changed over time, reflecting impacts of changes in international travel and contexts. Finally, although significant differences continued to exist between the two groups in each time period, over time tourists in the Other Younger Travellers group became more like Backpackers. The study concludes that the concept of backpacking as a rite de passage is worthy of further consideration and research attention