Destinations known | Can young Chinese tourists help save a backpacker-free Bangkok when international travel returns?
- Bangkok has long welcomed budget travellers in search of low-rent hedonism and cheap thrills
- Although easy to dismiss, the youth travel segment has significant spending power
The oldest backpack we know of belonged to Otzi the iceman, whose mummified remains – like the remnants of his pack – date to between 3400BC and 3100BC and were found in the Otztal Alps, on the border of modern-day Austria and Italy, in 1991. Otzi was not, however, the first backpacker.
Backpacking as we know it became a phenomenon in the 1950s, with the pathfinders of the “hippie trail”, an overland route from Europe to Asia. The trail for most followers passed through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and, eventually, Thailand, and was taken by budget travellers in search of authentic experiences and cheap thrills.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian revolution effectively closed the trail in the 70s, but in the decades since, Asia has remained the holy grail for mostly Western youngsters wide-eyed with wanderlust and as excited by cheap thrills as their beatnik begetters.