Portrayal of Taiwanese Backpackers

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4.1.1 Portrayal of Taiwanese Backpackers

The above two tables that contains “backpacking experiences” and “article popularity” which reflect two of the characteristics of backpackers

relatively—backpacking frequencies and narrative characteristics.

Alone with categorization process of data, some important psychological features of this chosen group of Taiwanese backpackers can be induced as follows.

Loyalty

Developing long-term relationship with customers to achieve ultimate goal of sustaining brand loyalty is what managers of all industries have strived for.

However, in tourism industry, practitioners do not have to worry about loyalties of the group of travelers called “backpackers.” The reason is that most of the

backpackers see “backpacking” as a kind of “attitude” of life, which they will maintain for their whole life. Once they assure themselves of the merits that backpacking brings, they won’t make themselves “tourists” in the package tour.

Thus, it is suggested that the market of backpackers will only grow rather than shrink. This matches what Cohen (2010) proposed—backpacker as “lifestyle traveler.”

The above idea can be found from the narrative excerpts as follows:

「發現最後也還是會回歸到日常生活的柴米油鹽。我還是會繼續旅行」 (F6, 2008)

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「長途旅行，是指超過三個月以上直到數年的長途旅程。是喜愛旅行者的一種夢想，也常

是難以跨越的界線。通常跨越了之後，會有兩種情形。第一種是開始愛上這種感覺，想盡

辦法無限期的延長，周遭所有親友都不甚諒解但你還是執意要做的那種執著勁兒，彷彿另

一個他方會有著你要的生活存在，但你只是還沒有遇到而已。」(F7, 2010)

「22 歲，第一次坐飛機、第一次出國、第一次跟團去泰國（也是最後一次跟團）。28 歲，第

一次單獨一人自助旅行，地點是英國的倫敦與愛丁堡。」(F16, 2008)

Backpacking Frequency

According to the statistics gathered from backpackers.com.tw, every backpacker at least has more than three times of backpacking experiences except for two (F3

&F9). Even more, there are four backpackers who have more than 30 times of experiences, and parts of these 37 backpackers have round-the-world traveling experiences.

Popular On-line Backpacking Narrative Style

After the journey, backpackers put down their thoughts and feelings into text, photo, or video into their own traveling narratives. However, what kind of narrative style will appeal most to the readers, or more specifically, to the backpackers-to-be, and arouses their motifs to set out for the journey? The two crucial points are stated as follows:

 Intriguing imagery—usually those presented with many good photos taken on the journey (M8 & F20) will easily catch readers’ eyes. The quantity of

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photos is not the point; what matters is the quality of those imageries, which must imply or tell something meaningful when viewed.

 Thick description about one critical event/specific area—a vivid and deep description about one thing happened during the journey will soon evoke readers’ emotions (M14 & F13).

General Characteristics of Taiwanese Backpackers

For the above chosen narrators on backpackers.com.tw, they are somehow the push factor for the trend of backpacking. Thus, by studying their narratives, some specific characteristics are categorized as follows:

 Travel Bug—

For the fans of backpacking, there are usually travel bugs living inside them.

As one of the narrators (F6) signifies, “The more you go, the more you want to go.”

 Wanderer/Explorer—

Not like what Cohen (1972, 1973) described, Taiwanese backpackers are more like “wanderer” (Vogt, 1976), rather than drifter or nomad. For instance, 「地 球走走看看」(M14), 「行腳天下」(F15), and “To independ your body and soul, let’s wander in this lonely planet.” are three clear examples.

 Culture Experiencer—

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Backpackers prefer to involve in the lives locals of the places they travel to.

Therefore, they enjoy experiencing different cultures. Statements such as 「體

驗那不同的文化所帶來內心的衝擊」(M7), 「旅行的感動是跟當地人交談、

參與當地的生活」(F14) are two good demonstrations.

 Backpacking as Challenge—

Backpacking has been viewed as a way to challenge themselves, such as the quote「自由行是對自己一生的挑戰」(M11).

 Dream Catcher—

Many of the Taiwanese backpackers regard backpacking travel as a dream of life to fulfill. Two narrators state that 「有夢就去追，有一天世界會是你的」

(M10) and 「有能力時，用力的去追夢想吧」(M14)

 Self-Practitioner—

The process of completing backpacking is looked upon as a way of practice.

Thus, one narrator (M14) described backpacking as 「旅行，也是自我修行」.

 Escapist—

As Pine & Gilmore (1999) stated in the “Experience Realms”, Taiwanese backpackers are more like “escapist” because F8 says 「短暫的幾天，將一切 牽絆心弦的事物拋諸腦後」and F16 says 「離家出走四字觸動你我的心，

聽見心底的聲音了嗎？離家出走去吧！」

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