Virtual mobilities: backpackers, new media and online travel communities

This paper examines the role that new media play in the contemporary experience of backpacker travel, and explores the complexity of online communities as they emerge in travel discussion forums and social networking sites. With new media technologies now saturating the experience of travel, mediated word-of-mouth communication is easily accessible when on the move, with virtual mobility presenting opportunities for the strengthening of interactions and the maintenance of social networks. Focusing on the role that social media play in shaping the cultural meanings of travel to a mobile community, and the ways by which the travel experience comes to be filtered, mediated, and negotiated, this paper highlights some of the tensions that exist in understandings of virtual travel communities. In particular, questions are raised about traditional understandings of community now that it exists and is expressed virtually, as well as corporeally and locally. We suggest that in contemporary backpacker travel, new forms of community are emerging in the interweaving of mediated virtual connections and immediate face-to-face interactions.