Attraction

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Figure 4. 1. How the Backpackers Perceive ‘Price’ and ‘Work’ While Travelling Source: Researcher’s interpretation based on autoethnography

55 Natural Beach

(3.62%)

TH (8.39%) MY (8.05%) PH (7.45%) SG (7.12%) VN (6.02%)

- Southeast Asia is associated with tropical heaven - Northeast Asia is more of mountainous and lake

Cultural

Cultural / Culture (2.07%)

SK (4.83%) Tbt (3.97%) JP (3.52%)

- Many backpacker enclaves rely on cultural attraction

Artificial

Shopping

(1.75%) SG (3.56%) - Less attractive than cultural or natural attractions - Typical favorite artificial attractions: cheap party

town and museums

- Historical museum attracts more Western travelers than Asian ones due to relatability

Museum

(1.14%) JP (5.05%)

Cuisine Food (3.18%)

SG (10.09%) TW (5.76%)

JP (4.32%) MY (4.15%)

TH (3.53%)

- Some destinations are strongly associated with it - Dish can be one of the most well-known things

about a destination

Events &

Activities

Night Market (0.52%)

TW (3.91%)

- Can’t stand alone as an attraction itself

- Need to be integrated with other types of attractions and it enhances the tourist experience

- Special events are often a significant attractor for backpackers

Activities

(1.22%) SG (3.26%)

Diversity No Significant CTA result

- It encourages travelers to stay longer

- Most of established backpacker enclaves have a high level of diversity on attractions

Natural attraction tops the list of type of attractions that most discussed on the online forum.

Mountains and lakes shape the attractions of East Asia, while Southeast Asia is well-known for its tropical heaven associated with beach, underwater, surfing, and diving.

Cultural attraction covers traditional, religious, and historical attractions. CTA reveals that culture-based attractions are not as strongly significant as natural attractions.

However, the attributes are arguably equally important based on the autoethnographic works. The researcher often observes that backpackers are much fascinated with the culture in their host destination. Moreover, most backpacker enclaves in Asia heavily depend on historical-cultural appeals, such as Bagan in Myanmar, Bangkok in Thailand, and Saigon in Vietnam. Therefore, the cultural attraction is no less important than the natural attraction for attracting budget travelers.

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In regards to artificial attractions, CTA reveals some significant findings in certain countries. Singapore is associated with shopping, Japan with museum, and Cambodia with party. The findings are consistent with the field observation, in which cheap party towns and museums exhibiting historical significances draw the attention of budget travelers, particularly Western travelers for museums because they are abler to relate with the historical events than Asian tourists to colonialism outside their country of origin.

Party towns essentially offer the experience of backpacking sub-culture and artificial attractions, such as in the case of Pattaya in Thailand and Kuta in Bali which are always among top backpacker destinations. However, the most dramatic example could be Vang Vieng in Laos. The place is visited by a large number of backpackers who love to have fun, drink, smoke joints, have drugs, and so on. Despite the town’s effort to develop nature-based tourism along Nam Song River, it is not the reason most backpackers coming there. Instead, the main drivers are experiencing the backpacking sub-culture and the pleasure that they can enjoy with relatively low-cost. One Malaysian traveler described Vang Vieng as follows.

“the best party town in Southeast Asia.... because it is fun and freaking cheap.”

On the other hand, budget travelers might not be much interested in mainstream artificial attractions due to its affordability, such as theme parks. A budget traveler from Hong Kong had a comment as follows.

“I’m not interested in theme parks (in Japan). Even I have only visited Disneyland in Hong Kong once in my life, and I didn’t enjoy it. It is expensive and doesn’t worth the price”

Cuisine is treated as a separate attraction to cultural attractions. Having compared the result of CTA and the researcher’s observation, it is confirmed that some Asian

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destinations are strongly associated with food. The topic of food in the forum of Singapore and Malaysia is often discussed more extensively than its culture. For illustrations, Singapore is popular for its “hawker”, the Southeast Asian kiosk selling street food which is planned to be registered as a nominee of UNESCO Intangible Culture. Penang in Malaysia is also famous for its food. Exotic cuisines in Thailand like scorpions become a tourist attraction and even an icon without much related to the traditional Thai culture.

Furthermore, some dishes could contribute as a branding element of a destination. Pad thai or tom yum of Thailand, pho of Vietnam, sushi of Japan, kimchi of Korea, and so on.

Events and activities are found to be the least favored attribute compared to other types of attractions as CTA reveals. Based on the field observation, events can be a significant attractor for budget travelers. Many travelers are aware of certain festivals.

Backpackers might adjust their itinerary to match with the celebration. Some of the popular festivals among backpackers are Songkran in Thailand, Holi in India, and cherry blossom viewing (hanami) in Japan.

Lastly, diversity captures the extent to which attractions are combined in a destination. Keywords representing the diversity of tourism products are found to be insignificant, perhaps owing to some technical limitations. However, field observation and participation find that diversity is an important component in attracting budget travelers and encouraging them to stay longer and make a repeated visit. Most of popular backpacker enclaves in Asia, if not the world, have a high diversity of offerings. Bali in Indonesia is an example how the island manages to attract tourists using its combination of natural attractions (beaches, volcanoes, waterfalls), cultural attractions in Ubud and Eastern Bali, artificial attractions (bars, night clubs) found in Kuta, and events and activities incorporated in those attractions (festivals, watersports, snorkeling, diving, cooking or massage class, etc.).

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As a summary, there are core attractors that invite tourists to come to a destination, which are the first four attributes: natural, cultural, artificial, and cuisine. Those attractions are possible to be combined with each other. For instance, some destinations manage to combine the natural and cultural attractions, as demonstrated by the category of “Mixed” UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Events and activities enhance visitors’

experience on top of the core attractors. In turn, those combinations would create a certain level of diversity. The wide range of offerings has a role not only in attracting tourists to come, but also encouraging them to stay longer or making a repeated visit in the future.

Figure 4.2 shows the relationship between different types of attractions that elaborated.

Attraction is unsurprisingly a significant factor that draws travelers to a destination.

Though there are exceptions noted for backpackers. While almost all backpackers visit a destination because of the attractions it has, but some might not be always attraction-oriented as discussed in later sections.

Figure 4. 2. The Relationship Between Attributes in Attraction Source: Researcher’s interpretation based on autoethnography

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