Backpaking lifestyle
reconceptualise as ‘lifestyle travellers’, move beyond an episodic consumption of
backpacking. Backpacking is instead extended to an ongoing lifestyle practice that on a micro
level provides both a unique sense of self to its practitioners and on a macro level comprises a
distinct and recognisable social identity. Lifestyle travel in a broader sense can take on
different forms, whether, for instance, through backpacking, ocean yacht cruising (Macbeth,
2000) or caravanning (White & White, 2004). What these forms of travel have in common
that distinguishes them from many other lifestyle choices is sustained physical mobility.
Whilst social scientists dispute just how ‘new’ mobilities are to our lives (Creswell, 2010;
Sheller & Urry, 2006), less disputable is that globalisation, with mobility as a crucial
characteristic, is leading to different ways of understanding identities and relating to place. As
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