Introduction

Backpacking, a form of tourism and sub-lifestyle, has often been placed in a very different category to mainstream tourism, a form resting on complex and interdependent infrastructural 'scapes'; producing (and being produced by) its own system of interrelated and increasingly interconnected institutions, transports, guidebooks, routes and symbolic spaces of consumption. This chapter takes a fresh look at the phenomena of 'backpacker hostels'; the network of backpacker-oriented accommodations, historically, discursively, symbolically and materially part of backpackers' lived 'socio-spatial practices'; part of a global system that enables, influences and shapes (and vice-a-versa) backpacker flows. The 'backpacker hostel' has risen symbolically and materially to become a validated and sanctioned portal for entry into this lifestyle, central to its reproduction and development, linking multiple spaces and times together; an important infrastructure and a key building block through which people relate to and associate with backpacking. More importantly, the 'backpacker hostel' is a place specifically for consumption and performance – routed in the discourse of spatial mobility, experience seeking, performance and identity. Celebrated and represented in film, media and literature as the antithesis to the 'International hotel', as the primary time/space experiential setting for a backpacking trip, it has become a key symbol of backpacker travel itself, where individuals perform, narrate stories, sample (or build) an identity, exchange knowledge and interact. As a key mobility system, a significant system of provision and a key consumption junction, this chapter traces the historic, symbolic and material meaning attached to them, emphasizing their role within contemporary backpacking.

Conceptual Framework

We can conceptualize the 'landscapes of tourism' (Shaw & Williams, 2004) or more accurately, the landscapes of mobility as 'vacationscapes' (Gunn, 1989), 'leisurescapes' (Urry, 1990) 'travellerscapes' (Binder, 2004), 'tourismscapes' (Van der Duim, 2007), made up of various flows, which are constituted through a skein of complex, interlocking networks that increase and enable tourism between, within and across different societies (Urry, 2000).