TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the backpacker label by reconstructing it using the historical antecedent of drifting. Following the deconstruction of backpacking’s near past, the author build a clearer conceptual foundation for backpacking’s future.Design/methodology/approach The study is framed by scenario planning, which demands a critical review of the backpacking and an appreciation of its history in order to understand its future.Findings Backpacking, ever evolving, remains difficult to articulate and challenges researchers to “keep up” with its complexity and heterogeneity. This paper argues that researchers must learn more about how backpacking “works” by opening a dialogue with its past, before engaging in further research. The paper finds that a poor conceptualisation of backpacking has led to a codification of backpacker criteria.Practical implications Backpacking remains a research topic which draws disparate researchers using criteria that produces disparate results and deviations. By understanding its past, researchers will be better placed to explore the emancipatory impulses that drive backpackers today and in the future.Originality/value This papers’ value lies in the retrospection process which explores backpacking’s near past so as to “make sense” of present research and present scenarios for it is the immediate future. The paper re-anchors backpacking by investigating the major historical, social and cultural events leading up to its emergence.
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
SN  - 2055-5911
DO  - 10.1108/JTF-04-2018-0019
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-04-2018-0019
AU  - O’ Regan Michael
PY  - 2018
Y1  - 2018/01/01
TI  - Backpacking’s future and its drifter past
T2  - Journal of Tourism Futures
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 193
EP  - 204
Y2  - 2024/09/20
ER  -