Affordability

There are two attributes that categorized as significant, ‘price’ and ‘work availability’. While ‘exchange rate’ is found to be quite significant according to CTA, in which users on online forum discuss where to exchange their money. The concern is more of the infrastructure to do currency exchange or money withdrawal, or the ‘infrastructure’

that covered in another factor, rather than the exchange rate per se. Considering it is overlapping with the factor covering general infrastructure in this model, then it leads to its exclusion in the finalized model. The attribute ‘exchange rate’ is incorporated into the

‘financial service’ in the factor ‘amenities’.

The concern about price is congruent with Mazanec et al.’s (2007) argument stating that the most straightforward interpretation of destination competitiveness is likely to focus on its price. Crouch’s (2011) term “cost/value” puts values as the 6^th most important in his model. It affirms the finding from autoethnography noting that the ideal price for backpackers comprises two dimensions: affordable and worth. Price plays a very essential

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role among backpackers, considering their context as low-budget travelers and it marks an obvious characteristic in comparison to regular tourists (Cohen, 1972; Riley, 1988; ten Have, 1974).

Price should be understood in a wider context, that it is to be paired with other factors. The multi-dimensional notion of price is found in the work by Dwyer and Kim (2003) and Dwyer et al. (2004), which applies “value for money” to different factors such as destination experiences and accommodation. In this research, price covers attraction, accommodation, and amenities. For example, entrance fee in ‘attractions’, transportation cost in ‘accessibility’ that manifested through the preference on taking local transportation (Bradt as cited in Hampton & Hamzah, 2010), and accommodation cost in

“amenities” which displayed by the preference for budget accommodation (Locker-Murphy & Pearce, 1995).

Relating price to Asian backpackers, they are observed to be more varied in terms of spending compared to its Western counterparts. The majority of them don’t mind to spend more on experiences, food, accommodation, and so on. There are several reasons to explain this behavior. First, their behavior of spending is closely related to their period of time of travelling. Cohen (1973) classifies the drifters as full- and part-time drifters, and most of Asian backpackers are arguably part-time drifters. Bui et al. (2014) argue that many Asian travelers face more limitations than Western travelers because of a relatively shorter period of vacation and poorer social security systems, which don’t facilitate them to travel longer or earlier. Paris et al. (2015) note that the concept of “gap year” also matters since it is more known in the West. Consequently, these Asian part-time drifters have limited part-time, so they need to maximize the experiences in the destination, and are willing to pay higher for the intensity of the experience – that might

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fit into a definition of “flashpackers” - the backpacker with higher budget (Butler &

Hannam, 2014; Hannam & Diekman, 2010; Jarvis & Peel, 2010).

The second argument that might explain the Asian backpackers’ attitude in terms of spending is done through the reflection on “lifestyle traveler” that termed by Cohen (2011). It is found that some Asian travelers adopting backpackers’ characteristics on the surface level, but not fully immersed in it. Asian backpackers don’t take backpacking as lifestyle, but as a break from their routine. They might stay at backpacker accommodations, but don’t mind to pay hundreds of Dollars for enjoying high-cost attractions such as elephant riding, having drinks at fancy places, taking taxis, flying from one city to another instead of taking land transportation, and other activities that many backpackers tend to avoid. In this case, the driver is their inward-orientation to experience the counter- or sub-culture of backpackers, while getting immersed with the host destination to minimal extent.

The third one is the cultural background. Most of Asian travelers the researcher met are Japanese, who don’t mind spending more money because they don’t bargain.

According to Bradt (as cited in Hampton & Hamzah, 2010), one characteristic of backpackers is bargaining against rip-off – something that Japanese travelers are observed not doing it often, either perhaps because it is not a custom for Japanese, the tendency to avoid confrontation, or due to communication barriers. In addition, Teo and Leong (2006) argue that Japanese and Korean tourists relatively have higher purchasing power than other Asian travelers, that might also explain the behavior.

Therefore, the research presumes that the majority of Asian backpackers might not be much concerned with ‘price’ due to the arguments explained. The key argument might lie in the tendency of most Asian backpackers are “part-time drifter”, following Cohen’s

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(1973) typology. Only some small portion of Asian budget travelers travelling as the

“full-time drifter”, that usually is stricter on expenses, which is a natural response in order to survive in a long-term trip, thus making living on a budget as a necessity (Riley, 1988).

Another significant attribute is ‘work availability’. This attribute could be the most distinctive feature in backpacking travel, supported by significant results of CTA in most countries and autoethnography. Work availability reflects Richards’ (2015) argument, that there is an ideal aspiration of “changing continuously my study, work, and travel”

that shared together by those who identified as backpackers, travelers, flashpackers, and global nomads – but not significantly seen from the segment of regular tourists and volunteers. However, the relevance of this attribute might only be applied to full-time drifters. The main motivation is to survive in long-term travel, including to fund their next trip. As observed from working holiday makers in Australia which used as a benchmark used in this research, Cooper et al. (as cited in Richards & Wilson, 2014) find a relationship between job opportunity in the harvest industry and the motivation of backpackers to travel in Australia. Paris et al. (2015) argue that many backpackers save money and use it for a trip to Southeast Asia. However, that behavior is not found from the Asian working holiday makers in Australia, where their motivation is not much related to travel, such as experiencing the Western culture and learn the language as also found in a study by Bui & Wilkins (2016). This, again, depicts the tendency of Asian backpackers to be a part-time drifter, not treating travel as a “lifestyle” according to Cohen (2011).

Asian backpackers, however, are less likely to treat the attitude of ‘working to fund travel’ due to various reasons. First, Asian travelers might not have the advantage of teaching English as their Western counterparts do, either linguistically or ethnically.

Teaching English is the most common job taken by Western travelers, citing the

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advantage of “White privilege” which provides the “ticket to work and travel around Asia” (Lan, 2011, p.1676). Second, on the other side, Asian languages or even other languages than English might not be seen as an attractive offering in the language-teaching industry. Third, it might be related to the willingness to take the risk. As indicated in the findings, many jobs available when travelling are illegal-temporary jobs.

There is a risk involved, while many of the Asian travelers the researcher met are coming from developed countries, such as Japan and South Korea. They tend to be a law-abiding traveler and not willing to take the risk by working illegally. The idea of Hofstede’s (2011) “uncertainty avoidance” and “individualism” in his concept of Cultural Dimensions might illustrate the difference attitude between nations, especially the clear distinction between Western and Asian countries as shown in Figure 5.1. The uncertainty avoidance clearly indicates whether one tends to be a risk-taker or risk-averse person.

Kim and Lee (2000) argue that people from collectivistic cultures, as opposed to individualistic culture, tend to follow authority and order.

Figure 5. 1. The Comparison of “Individualism” & “Uncertainty Avoidance”

Source: Researcher’s interpretation of Hofstede’s (2011) “Cultural Dimension”

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

USA UK Germany Japan Indonesia Hong Kong

China Thailand South Korea Individualism Uncertainty Avoidance

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To conclude, affordability is surely an essential consideration for any tourist, but this might be more essential for backpackers. The more affordable, then the destination is perceived to be more attractive according to budget travelers. It might not be difficult to understand, considering the terms itself are synonymous to budget-conscious travelers, often resulting in a pejorative pun like ‘beg-packers’. Besides price, one unique attribute that sought by backpackers, and perhaps no other types of tourists, is the availability of work while travelling. It allows them to sustain their travel and provides the opportunity to get immerse more in the local culture. Furthermore, affordability does intersect with three factors that will be discussed next. That is to say that backpackers would prefer affordable attraction, affordable accessibility, and affordable amenities.