Dr Mark Hampton’s new paper Change, Choice, and Commercialization: Backpacker Routes in Southeast Asia has received press coverage in Yahoo! Finance, Kent on Sunday and Lonely Planet.
As Reader in Tourism Management and Faculty Director of Internationalisation at Kent Business School, Dr Hampton originally wrote the paper for the international journal Growth and Change.
Co-written with Professor Amran Hamzah of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, the paper explores how the backpacker is now less of an independent traveller and is increasingly more like a conventional tourist. Dr Hampton argues that this is due to the impact of low cost airlines, natural disasters, regional competition, tightening visa rules and terrorism.
The legendary ‘hippy trail’ has essentially been replaced by mainstream conventional tourism and the economic impact of this shift is profound. Tourism is Southeast Asia’s second largest industry and many small businesses depend on backpackers using local hotels and services.
As Dr Hampton told Kent on Sunday:
“This trend is somewhat worrying, as having such large firms controlling backpacker transport, accommodation and tours could reduce pro-poor tourism, which aims to alleviate poverty among marginalised communities.”
For further information about this paper you can download it online or for more information about Dr Hampton’s research, please contact him directly at M.Hampton@kent.ac.uk.