Are backpackers turning into a minority??

beach

It's interesting. I've learned from somewhere that the Lonely Planet's biggest challenge as a travel guide is to get rid of it's earned image over time as a 'The backpacker's bible'. That's LP has become synonymous to Backpackers. Now thay are trying hard to get rid of the image once has been to their advantage.

The reason. The travel community is by and large is turning 'affluant'!!!

So they too want their image as a travel guide to get aligned with this changing 'customer profile'.

But by judging from what i see, i'm confused (as usual like ever!). My little city is cracking at its seams with backpackerism I can see a lot of 'lost' backpackers even at the residential lanes without any specific tourist attractions . Someone says they're learning yoga, someone else says they are learning Hindustani music, someone says.....

What do you folks think? Is the backpacker community going into a minority? Or has the the time time approached to call a Carl Marx like slogan -"Backpackers of the world unite!!!"

ruins_explorer

I would guess that once affluent customers come in, there are a) more of them and b) they spend more - so anyone who wants to stay in business is obviously going to go to the customer with the biggest bang for the advertising buck. Towns appeal to backpackers when they are the first, intrepid travellers who show up - and then they change over to the affluent and packaged tourists once the ground has been cleared for them. I mean, just look at what's happening in Siem Reap (the town closest to Angkor Wat).

Still, it's kinda sad - Lonely Planet had a particular flavor that was different from Fodor's and the like.

LindaK

I know I'm not answering your question, Beach, but I wanted to put my two cents worth in anyhow.
I am certainly not a backpacker, yet I find Lonely Planets, Rough Guides and Footprints Guides much more useful than the guides aimed at more affluent travellers (Fodors, Frommers, etc.). They offer more of the information I need and want (hiking and cycling, practicalities for using a train or bus for travel and day trips) and have a more thorough coverage of the country including more off-the beaten track destinations.

TimMakins

I think there will always be backpackers, despite what the stats tell us. Trends can show anything you like, given a small enough set of statistics, but there will always be travellers on a small budget who just can't afford $20-a-day. If they don't come from Western Europe/Oz these days, they will come from Eastern Europe, where a dollar is still worth a dollar, or they will come from people who still want to find the 'Real India' and recognise that it doesn't exist in an ex-Maharajah's palace hotel.

But if LP really want to move up market, they will have to change their style big-time. Footprint Guides managed this many years ago, and are used by all levels of travellers from the $2-a-day crowd to the $2000-a-day jet-setters. But LP is just too chatty to appeal to the upper levels, and they just don't have the range of info that Footprint carries.

Tim, currently in Ireland.

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ruins_explorer

I was reading an article in Real Simple a while back that compared all the big travel book companies. It was pointed out that if you're on a package tour, all you need is a description of the places you're seeing, and you don't need food/hotel recommendations. I have found that the EyeWitness Guides are always missing crucial information like where to stay/eat, practicalities. But they do have the best 3D pictures of the big tourist sites. So if you want to stand inside the Hagia Sophia and look at a detailed diagram of where you are that points out all the things you should check out - it's awesome. But if you wanted lunch, forgetaboutit.

If Lonely Planet goes, at least there are several other companies that fill the need - Moon, Footprint, Rough Guides. We also have one out of the United States that's geared at student travellers, but I find it mostly useless because it's all listings, no interesting reading or pictures. I'm trying to remember the name of it because we bought their book for SE Asia.

Didn't lonely planet recently get bought out by some big company? I remember there was a to-do over at Thorntree.LonelyPlanet.com when it happened.

This whole topic fascinates me because I love travel so much. You'd think maybe I should get a job doing it or something.

MeCasa

Pack packing in foreign lands is a government plot to rid affluent countries of shiftless hippies on foreign lands with the promise of cheap marijuana and enlightenment

Seems it's working

Digital Drifter

highly possible. When I broached this subject to a couple of people in Wisconsin

that you can pretty much disappear in India, save for the fact you're white. & even that you can pass off after a few years getting tanned and let your blonde hair become whitish. learn the native language and poof....

The moment I spoke of being anonymous and no trace....all ears,they were. One guy swears by this method i.e. withdraw 3/4ths of Sal after payday, keep in sock, pay only cash everywhere...and he goes fishing to Canada. been in the company 30 years, nobody knows anything about him, Greg.

Americans, it takes all kinds. So, after being off tangent all this while, yeah it's a plot, alright.

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cyberhippie

I would say backpackers are definitely dwindling in numbers next to the new affluent traveller. You only have to look at how forums such as this one have changed over the years. Far more request for middle to high end hotels, more people asking about a taxi tour, more people asking about the palace on wheels and AC train travel!!

And in India the whole structure of the well known hotels is changing with many old baclpacker hotels going up market and asking for higher and higher tarrifs!!

Is this a good thing only time will tell!!

seventies'hippy

Are Backpackers turning into a Minority??

Or as I wrote last year:
Is that adventurous spirit turning soft.
Is The Adventurous Spirit Turning Soft?

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ruins_explorer

Hopefully the newly affluent travellers will keep in mind the values of the backpacker - sustainability, preserving the environment for future visitors, supporting local businesses/economies, and adapting to the place rather than forcing it to adapt to you.

ruins_explorer

I met a guy like that at my company christmas party. he's one of our subcontractors. works half the year, lives in the Canadian wilderness the rest of the time. He was quite a character.

Apparently, equal opportunity hadn't yet reached the woods since he was quite surprised that I'm a software engineer too.

Gayamom

"Is this a good thing? Only time will tell."

Well, personally, I'd say the arrival of more well-heeled travellers in India is a good thing. Not sure the proportion matters (i.e. greater percent affluent versus % backpacker), but if in absolute terms, more people with lots o' money visit India, then there are more businesses flourishing, jobs created, and there is more hard currency making its way into the Indian economy. Has to be done the right way, i.e. a modicum of planning, emphasis on local control of capital.

Industrialized countries' populations are aging. Aging travellers want a little comfort. India should provide it to them and collect the $$s. As for backpackers, well, most of them grow up to be . . . aging travellers who want a little comfort (with exceptions, of course).

"Hopefully the newly affluent travellers will keep in mind the values of the backpacker - sustainability, preserving the environment for future visitors, supporting local businesses/economies, and adapting to the place rather than forcing it to adapt to you."

Umm, these are backpacker values? I've met my share of backpackers who were there for the exotic adventure, orientalist to the core, and didn't much care about manners towards Indians, adaptation to local values, thinking about local economies, or sustainability. Wouldn't generalize about this crowd any more than I'd generalize about their older brothers and sisters with fatter wallets, not that you were, r_e .

(Err, by this point it must be obvious that I am one of those old fogey, comfort-craving, non-backpacker types?)

Cheers - GM

ruins_explorer

Hey, I just get the values out of the Lonely Planet book - I don't know if anyone is actually following them[1]. When I realized it was possible to travel, my life was too established to try the whole backpacker thing. I'm something of a combo. I like to plan my own trips to unusual places and get the real feeling of a country while visiting both the big sites and discovering some unknown ones (or just walking around the streets)...but I only have 2 wks per year to do it in, and as my salary has increased, I have increased my standard of travel. But I really do believe in all that responsible travel stuff. So I was thinking of myself when I wrote that paragraph.

[1] as much as I enjoy dancing at home, I refuse to go to any of the various full-moon-type parties all over the planet because I know that seeing the environmental destruction will really bug the crap out of me and I don't want to have my fantasies ruined. I'll read "The Beach" for my backpacker fantasies, because I think the real thing would be a huge disappointment. Besides, I don't see a point in travelling just to party. You can party at home. But that's me.ymmv.

Merchant

The demographic has changed. Young travelers have credit cards and broadband connections to complement their very expensive backpacking gear. The college- / post-college age group has considerable spending power. Just ask Britney Spears and Steve Jobs.

pix

I was reading an article about the changing profile of young travellers (sorry I can remeber the publication)just the other day. It basically said that yes, the profile of a typical young traveller is changing they are more often 'money rich but time poor'. I guess this leads to a different type of holiday expereince.

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