(Other) backpackers and affective Europe

ABSTRACT

Previous research has identified travellers from non-Western regions as an emerging market for European destinations, considering they increasingly take solo trips and use backpacker facilities. Using retrospective collaborative autoethnography along with affect theory, this research note centres on non-Western backpackers in Europe, with an emphasis on investigating our encounters during backpacking travels across four European countries and our own Western-non-Western identities. By unfolding a series of affective encounters between us as backpackers and visited European cities, we endeavour to illuminate some ponderings over our travel identities and our sense of (un)welcoming Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• Affect
• non-Western backpackers
• European cities
• tourism encounters
• (un)welcome

Introduction

Backpackers have been understood by various scholars through drawing inspiration from the Drifter tourist (Cohen, 1973). Some common travel ideals have been noted as allowing word of mouth and serendipity to influence a flexible itinerary, budget-minded journey, and close interaction with host communities and cultures (Ooi & Laing, 2010; Dayour et al., 2017). Over time, both the backpacker and the backpacking destinations have evolved. Especially, the non-Western world has witnessed an increase in tourism mobilities. However, the majority of literature being Western-centric or focusing on backpackers from the West presents a challenge, as well as an opportunity to research the emerging non-Western group of travellers (Chan, 2006; Zhang et al., 2017).

In this research, we refer to non-Western travellers as ‘other’ travellers. According to Said’s (1979) work on Orientalism, the Othering can be comprehended as understanding and finding the difference between the identity of self and others (Bresner, 2010). Specifically, tourism literature has been largely written from a Western perspective, making them as self while looking at non-Western populations and cultures as the other (Galani-Moutafi, 2000). Moving beyond the mainstream research on encounters of Western backpackers with their Asian hosts, it is time now to investigate the opposite, that is, the latter being hosted by the West (Bui et al., 2013). While we argue for exploring non-Western or other traveller mobilities, we do not intend to imply that they are necessarily and clearly distinct from their Western counterparts (Zhang, 2018). Neither do we claim that non-Western travellers have been ignored in academia; in fact, recent research has acknowledged and addressed this gap (Chen et al., 2020; Martins & da Costa, 2022). In backpacker tourism scholarship, however, Western perspectives and experiences still predominate. It is, therefore, essential to learn about accounts of travellers coming from different parts of the world to de-centre or rather re-centre tourism academia and make it more inclusive of diverse voices (Tripathi et al., 2020).

To explore (other) backpackers’ experiences and encounters in Europe, we adopt a research lens of affect theory. Affective entanglements of various bodies and spaces make (backpacking) tourism encounters (Zhang & Tucker, 2022). Therefore, in applying affect theory to analyse backpacking tourism encounters, we focus on ‘processes, relations, and the effects that bodies have on one another’ (Von Scheve, 2018, p. 43). Following Spinoza (1997) and Deleuze and Guattari (1987), we understand affect as the intensities or forces of relations, which include the subsequent emotional flows and overall feelings. Affect functions as a relational force interweaving tourists, objects and places. Reflecting on our various encounters in Europe through the lens of affect, we try to analyse how certain affect emanates and flows between bodies or between bodies and spaces (Anderson, 2009), as well as how affect sticks to specific bodies that impinge on us, thereby shaping our memories and our sense of place (Carter, 2019) or even unsettling our identities. Equipped with this way of thinking, we attempt to depict the affective qualities of Europe from the perspective of backpackers originating from geographically non-Western parts of the world.

Methodology

The research sites for this research engage cities across four European countries, namely, Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands. We backpacked across and within these countries, experiencing local cultures, gastronomy, recreational activities/attractions, and backpacking facilities. The decision to analyse our experiences of backpacking in Europe was made after our travels. As such, retrospective collaborative autoethnography branching out of autoethnography was adopted in this research (Tripathi et al., 2022; Chang et al., 2016). This methodology involves researchers collaborating to analyse their experiences after the event or experience has taken place, i.e. in retrospect. To collect information, we utilised our individual journal/diary entries, recorded audio/visual media, and worked on the discussion and analysis together.

Whilst we claim a non-Western perspective for this study, we also acknowledge that, much like the terms Western or non-Western, our own positionality is somewhat hazy, intricate, and entangled with Western understanding. Geographically, we both come from non-Western regions of the world, but a sizeable part of our knowledge and experiences comes from the Western academic community. Therefore, it is crucial to emphasise that the aim of this study is not to draw attention to binaries such as Western/non-Western or East/West, but rather to deepen understanding of the phenomenon of backpacker tourism and contribute to a multiplicity of dialogues in backpacker tourism research. Pure binary positionalities present a challenge to epistemological understanding, knowledge-making and the comprehension of our own subjectivities (Zhang, 2018; Tucker & Zhang, 2016). Keeping in mind increased global mobilities and hybrid identities, we seek a deeper understanding of these concepts while maintaining continuity with previous studies. Simultaneously, through multiple discussions and contemplation, we also paid particular attention to reflecting on how relational affect and its incarnations emerged and had effects during our travels (Kahl, 2019). The outcome of the reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2018) was discussed as follows.

Findings

Identity of ‘other’ backpacker

We grew up in geographically Eastern countries, India and China, where both of us have encountered travellers (often backpackers) who were guests. Considering this and our own travels to different non-Western countries, we have developed some particular understanding of backpacking. For us, travel ideals such as flexibility of itinerary driven by serendipity were of the utmost importance; however, in order to visit Europe, we were required to show all paid bookings and proof of our stays, and thereafter we were granted the visa for a day longer than we had requested. Such occurrences prompted the question of whether the atmosphere around us was designed to cater to a certain stereotype of non-Western travellers. This conundrum of our travel identities was not always driven by external factors such as an embassy, airlines, and tourist offices; often, it was something deeper within ourselves. The following excerpt from our diary entries demonstrates our negotiation with such dilemmas.

‘During our travels, we were looking for getting to know the local communities and culture more but it was challenging. People probably have fast lives or maybe it is because of the language barrier, but when we go to get a coffee or encounter people on the road, there are no small talks or even smiling which is unlike other places we have visited. It just makes us feel like  …  I guess, a foreigner’

Partially this could be because of the opposite flow of our travels, where now we were the so-called guests in the geographically Western part of the world (Bui et al., 2013). In reflecting on these encounters, we come to an understanding that these may be examples of the lifestyle diversity and cultural practices that we were actively seeking during our travels. Even now, we are still engaged in ongoing discussions about our encounters in Europe and pondering over the complexities of our non-Western backpacker identities in relation to the prevailing Western backpacking ideals.

(Un)Welcoming Europe

As the preceding excerpt illustrates, tourism encounters always involve the act of (un)welcome (Gill et al., 2022). Lynch (2017) equates welcome with hospitality and further elucidates (un)welcome as a social interaction-based sense or feeling. According to our travel experiences, welcome and unwelcome as intangible but felt forces impinged us. They emanated from our encounters with residents, other tourists, objects and environmental conditions. As per our travel logs, we experienced a range of emotive encounters, such as waiting more than an hour for service in a restaurant, correcting meal charges twice, looking for a power point in a fancy mall, desperately searching for English-speaking staff in a Spanish hostel, and being turned down by visitor centre staff for explaining the tourist travel card. Such incidents left us pondering if we were even welcome in these places and what had caused all of this to happen.

Tourism facilities and hospitality practitioners as important actors within the tourism network play a significant role in shaping the (un)welcoming affective energies of a place. In these occurrences illustrated above, unwelcome diffused in spaces and created an atmosphere where our power to act and our sense of place were constrained. As suggested by Lynch (2017), it becomes more remarkable when the welcome fails. However, from our travel experiences, the affective atmospheres of a place are never finished or determinate; they and their affective qualities ‘are always being taken up and reworked in lived experiences’ (Anderson, 2009, p. 79). On the same day that we had frustrating talks with a visitor centre, we met some people who were warm and helped us with machines in a local laundromat even though they did not speak English. Even in a small mundane encounter, welcome, unremarked though, was felt as a positive affect and partook in reshaping our sense of the place.

Conclusion

Using retrospective collaborative autoethnography, we reflected on embodied encounters during our European backpacking travels in this research. As backpackers coming from Asian countries that are known to be hosts, we investigated our affective encounters as guests visiting Europe. Affects that emerged from encounters create certain atmospheres and shape our senses of (un)welcoming Europe. Furthermore, welcome and unwelcome as affects lead to a reappreciation of European cities and reconsideration of our identities. This process enables us to come to understand the interaction between our non-Western backpacker identity and Western backpacking concepts.

While we have practised rigour to minimize challenges in narrating and analysing our experiences through reflexivity and collaboration, there still are some limitations to this research, such as researchers’ vulnerability and self-indulgence (Lapadat, 2017). This enquiry can be helpful for relevant stakeholders to effectively design a tourism ecosystem and businesses that provide welcoming atmospheres for travellers such as backpackers, and specifically non-Western travellers who are an upcoming market. Theoretically, in accordance with non-representational thought, this research also argues for studying the prosaic, the indeterminate, and the affective in (backpacking) tourism encounters, as well as various ways of becoming/being through different perspectives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).