What is it about?
Backpacking is a type of tourism which provides both escape; from mundane home and work lives, and opportunities for exploration; of landscapes, relationships and oneself. This article uses existential philosophy to help understand backpacking, and backpacking to help understand existential philosophy!
Featured Image
Why is it important?
It is important to know why people go on holiday in order to understand what sort of things they are looking for when they go away. This is because different types of holidays have different impacts on the individual, and the peoples and landscapes they come into contact with. For example, backpacking holidays tend to be more sustainable as they involve local businesses and small scale infrastructure. Building this knowledge of why people travel means that we can help to develop tourism experiences that are more sustainable.
Perspectives
I enjoy backpacking as do many of my friends. However I had never really considered in depth why we enjoy it. On reflection my personal reasons for going on holiday were more complicated than I initially thought. I go partly to escape and relax, but also to learn more about the world, challenge myself, and make connections with the people I share my travels with. This inspired me to research backpackers sharing their experiences online and to investigate further the complex reasons they take holidays.
Dr Brendan Canavan
University of Huddersfield
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: An existentialist exploration of tourism sustainability: backpackers fleeing and finding themselves, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, September 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2017.1361430.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
