"Backpackers" Should Be "Budget Travelers" in Oz

^{Category: Australia | Student Discounts}

Msn.com reports today that an Australian marketing and tourism expert, one Professor Bruce Prideaux, sez backpackers on holiday down under don't call themselves backpackers anymore; he believes "...the marketing term may be outdated, overtaken by the young budget traveler category."

So that's what backpackers are -- a marketing category. (Apparently, I'm a flashpacker these days, myself.)

The prof went on to say that backpackers now regard themselves as "being in the mainstream of the travel market" and that backpackers represent as much as 10 percent of Australia's international visitors, but 25 percent of international visitor nightly stays.

That's a lot of dollars that you control in the Aussie tourist world -- US college students have $175 billion to spend this year, in fact, "...and it's time the tourism industry recognised the fact... The findings indicate a significant shift in the image which backpackers have of themselves as travellers," writes Msn.com.

The info comes from a report called "Backpackers in the Tropics" -- other tidbits about those hostel-dwelling, pack-toting travelers formerly known as backpackers in Australia:

• Fifty percent are under 24
• Forty two percent are between 25 and 44
• Sixty seven percent travel alone

Which all begs the question: what do you call yourself when traveling? After all, if you control such big bucks (yeah, not me so much, either) and are part of a market segment travel providers want to reach, you need to know which discount to ask for, like those with Triple A cards do, and inquiring about the "backpacker's discount" at a hostel is never happening...