Backpaking lifestyle
tourists of similar interests.’ This latter enclavic focus reflects an institutionalisation of the
backpacking phenomenon, a mainstreaming decried by some authors (Cohen, 2003; O’Reilly,
2006) for its alignment with the stigma of mass tourism. The homogenisation of backpacking
with the rubric of mass tourism, however, is derailed by scholarship that teases out
heterogeneity from within the backpacker umbrella concept (Ateljevic & Doorne, 2005;
Uriely, Yonay, & Simchai, 2002). Sørensen (2003) calls for continued research on specific
subtypes within the backpacker market.
Westerhausen (2002, p. 146) notes ‘for a sizeable minority, being on the road becomes a
preferred way of life to which they will return whenever the opportunity presents itself.’ Noy
and Cohen (2005) further highlight that such ‘lifelong wanderers’ have rarely been the subject
of empirical research
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