Experiences of Backpackers: An Overview of Publications

Backpacking tourism has been shown to have considerable economic, cultural, social, and environmental effects, resulting in numerous benefits for developing and developed countries. But although the backpacking tourism segment has evolved, it is recognised that the literature has underestimated the importance of this subsector, focusing mainly on the identity and authenticity aspects of backpackers and the positions of local communities. Therefore, this research aims to explore the theoretical currents of backpackers’ emotional experiences in the face of the development of backpacking tourism. Through a search in the Web of Science database, 50 documents were selected, which were systematically analysed and subjected to bibliometric analysis using two techniques: bibliographic coupling and cluster analysis. From the results, it was possible to identify and categorise the theoretical trends, classifying them into four groups: (i) backpacking tourism in the local community, (ii) antecedents of backpackers’ emotions, (iii), dominant factors of backpackers’ experience (iv) attributes of backpackers. This methodology can help to provide an overview of the most developed areas of study in the emerging field of backpacking tourism, helping those who are starting their research to address specific topics and therefore to establish them. This research aims to make a theoretical contribution to backpacking tourism, as well as to help tourism managers define strategies to achieve the economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with backpackers.