"Tourists are tourons and travellers are very different;": How mainstream tourists and budget travellers are seen by backpackers
This study deals with a segment of tourism, budget travellers, in a third world context. The research material consists of interviews, questionnaires and observations made in several South American countries, mainly Ecuador, between the autumn of 1996 and the spring of 1997. Budget travelling or backpacking is a phenomenon whose roots lead back to the days of the Grand Tour and tramping. Modern backpacking, however, only developed in the 1960s and 1970s. During the last two or three decades the budget travel scene has normalized, the average budget traveller having turned to a middle-class Westerner from a drifting hippie. Budget travellers are very conscious of their own status and identity. They strive to maintain clear distance from tourists who are seen as a lower category to be looked down upon. This taking of distance can be divided into six different categories or dimensions. These are the temporal dimension, the dimensions of organization, planning, adaptation, reason, and the economic dimension. Several examples drawn from the questionnaires are given describing the distinction from the traveller's point of view. Also statistical data about budget traveller's ages, sex, national origins etc. are delivered.