Redefining young low cost travellers - still backpackers or are they budget travellers?

The image of backpacking has changed over recent decades. The original backpackers, members of the Baby Boomer generation, were not regarded by some commentators as legitimate tourists and were seen by elements of the tourism establishment as cheap, beer swilling, drug taking travellers who added little to destinations. Over the past decade however young budget travellers have emerged as a significant tourist market, and have begun to attract substantial investment both in specialist backpacker facilities and in marketing dollars at destinations. The use of the term backpacker as a self descriptive term however has weakened. To identify the implications of this change in attitude towards this travel subset¡¦s views of themselves as travellers a convenience survey of 312 backpackers was conducted in Cairns over the summer of 2004-2005. Findings of this research indicate that a significant shift has occurred in the in the image that young travellers have of themselves. If the term ¡¥backpacker¡¦ is outdated, what term can be used to replace it? Should marketers look for a different term? How similar are the activities desired by this group to those of the past? This paper examines these issues and finds that while the term ¡¥backpacker¡¦ still has currency, there is an emerging trend in low cost travel that requires a new as yet undefined label.\u