realities of backpacking in Australia

[edsarti]

which were your considerations and knowledge of backpacking before visiting OZ? do you think that backpackers (especially when travelling through oz) are still following the basic principles and ideology they are bound to?
academics defined backpacker as people who:
-travel on a low budget:saving on transportation,accommodation and food aiming to make the trip last as long as possible.
-meet different people: from locals to especially backpackers creating a sort of global village community as a source of info.
-are free,open-minded and independent:manage towards the changing of location quickly.
-organise one's journey independently:challenging flexibility and avoiding the mainstream tourists(package ones)
travel for as long as possible:assuming real travel can just be done in long periods of time.

do you think this 'old' categorization of backpackers still apply fully or it has evolved to a more similar mass tourism product? when you landed in Australia you've surely stayed somewhere like kings cross or Bondi where the travellers are many in numbers. getting a hostel wasn't hard at all, getting tips of where to go and what to do was just a matter of time, either by meeting fellow travellers or walking past one of the 100s backpacking agencies or shops.

please help me understand this new form of backpacking. where people (like me) just get there, feel a bit lost but adapt so easily because Australians where expecting us anyways.tell me about the main routes/destinations you went to, if you expected backpacking to be different or what were you trying to prove to yourself by travelling in OZ.

SPAM SPAM SPAM - I'm an idiot for trying this here on this boardyse those ideologies and see if you can define yourself a backpacker!

thanks

ed

[PR]

G'day ed,

Hmmm, let me see now ... you're doing a masters or doctorate in studying backpackers?! o.O

C'mon, give us an intro to yourself please.

PR

[edsarti]

OK then,

I'm a 22 year old undergraduate final year student doing tourism and environmental management. i lived in Australia for about 8 months and join partially the backpacker movement.did my trips and routes like other backpackers when i started wondering about this form of tourism.

university has taught me that backpacking follows the evolution of a drifter. the drifter himself used to leave his country to visit the unknown or untouched destinations from the normal and mass flow tourists.additionally it tried to interact with the local community to gather knowledge and culture of the place visited, trying to use local facilities like transport and accommodation etc.
the backpacker, following the academic literature has five main principles to follow like mentioned above, which would then allow to achieve 'badges of backpacking'.to travel cheap, meet different people,be free and independent, organise one's journey independently and travel for as long as you can.
my experience confirmed all of these ideologies but also gave me some interest topics to debate, especially in Australia. oz is one of the first countries to rely and appreciate this kind of tourist, providing loads of facilities,services,experiences and emphasizing the global village of backpackers. wherever i went backpackers were present, not everyone i met travelled in the SPAM SPAM SPAM - I'm an idiot for trying this here on this board of the ways, or interact with locals, most of them had fixed itineraries and some just backpacked in the country for as little as 2 weeks which isn't enough time to visit all the country but can give u  a backpacking experience.

is the mystical form of backpacking lost in this country? or is it just evolving to something more, like a mass-backpacking tourism industry?

i 'd like to get some point of views of backpacking in australia and if it is still following these principles and instead of 'staying off the beaten track'(the flow of mass, package tourists) or simply becoming a new track which it is still beaten but from large numbers of backpackers.
please give me some personal experiences which opened your eyes to the fact that backpacking nowadays is not unique or isolated but becoming something trendy which everyone is doing!.

thanks