BACKPACKER DESTINATIONS: geographies of tourism and sustainability — ASN Events

BACKPACKER DESTINATIONS: geographies of tourism and sustainability (16481)

Ben Iaquinto 1
  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

A destination is much more than an end point or terminus. In a highly mobile world in which the tourist is a quintessential mobile subject, the concept of destination can play an important role in analyses of place. This paper explores the relations between destination, place, practice and sustainability through a focus on long term low budget tourists called backpackers. Based on primary research, this paper imagines the destination in three different ways – as node, as abode and as on-the-road. Nodes provide an impetus for travel as they shape itineraries and direct mobilities. Abodes are characterised by a temporary abatement of mobility as backpackers temporarily reside in place. On-the-road is a destination that moves. As I will show, each destination is produced through distinctive interplays of mobility and stillness. Destinations are then not static backgrounds or fixed stages upon which tourist practices occur but are wholly entangled with practices. The paper concludes by examining how these three conceptual destinations afford certain sustainability practices while thwarting others.