The Research Project - Assignment Example

s a global state of change. The average tourist has different expectations and desires when traveling today than they did in previous generations, and this greatly impacts the way the tourist industry must adapt across various sectors (Hamzah & Hampton, 2011). One area of particular interest in the young traveler. Young people are choosing to spend a considerable portion of their traveling internationally in record numbers. Many of these individuals will choose to spend extended periods of time in lone geographical region, becoming immersed in the culture and providing a potentially positive source of tourism related revenue to the region.

These individuals most commonly travel as ‘backpackers’, and they are more interested in local culture and the way of life of indigenous people than they are in staying in resorts or going to more traditional holiday designations (Allon, 2004). The rationale for this study, therefore, is to look at the country of Thailand and determine how the revitalized backpacker industry is reshaping the way the tourism industry is viewing the young traveler today. While backpackers have been around for generations, they have not typically made the impact on this hospitality industry in large numbers as they are today.

As such, more information is needed in order to capitalize of this part of the industry, which well positions a research study of this scope. 1.3 Critical Review of Key References It might be plausible to think of backpacking today in the same vein as it was decades ago. Current research into the discipline, however, reveals a completely different story. While the time was not along ago that young people were expected go from secondary school right into the university, or to launch their own career, that is no longer necessarily the case today.

Whereas there was no time afforded to this particular demographic to get out and see the world, that option is now available today. The concept of a ‘gap’ year, by way of example, has recently been introduced into hospitality and tourism vocabulary to describe the idea of taking a year or two off, as a young person, to explore and broaden horizons before embarking on a career or educational path (Arnett, 2000). Some young people have opted to turn their adventures during this time into a working holiday, or to simply backpack a particular region of the world for an extended period of time.

Backpackers truly desire to encounter and learn from different cultures, and experience different ways of life that they have never encountered before. This gives young people a unique perspective of life that was previously unavailable to them (Arnett, 2000). This new phenomenon, particularly in the context of Southeast Asian tourism, is certainly worthy of further study in order to determine the true impact of backpackers on the industry moving forward. There are positive market trends being demonstrated today in the backpacker segment of the tourism industry around the world.

Some areas of the global are reporting record numbers of