Photo courtesy of tomboy-tarts.com
A few excerpts about Flashpackers from the news:
From the Times Online:
"Enter the Flashpackers. They’ve got the adventurous outlook of the traditional budget traveller, with one important difference: dosh. Usually in their thirties and forties, Flashpackers are typically on extended holidays, sabbaticals or career breaks. They probably went backpacking in their youth and they’ve lost none of that gung-ho attitude. It’s just that, now, they are equally at home living the simple life in a £3 beach hut or the high life in a five-star hotel."
Flashpackers as high-tech backpackers:
"A survey completed earlier this year by 2,561 visitors to the Hostelworld.com Web site found that 21 percent of them travel with a laptop, 54 percent with an MP3 player, 83 percent with a mobile phone and 86 percent with a digital camera."
Flashpackers as millionaire travellers:
"One British Chief Executive Officer of an Insurance and Risk Management Company wanted to treat himself for his 40th birthday and decided to relive the carefree days of his youth when he went backpacking. But this time he is doing it in style and at a cost of more than £20,000."
I remember staying in a hostel in Hawaii in 2003 and seeing one of the hostel guests drive up in a rented Ferrari. Hostels attract more than just the budget crowd.
A new Australian hostel called Nomads Industry bills itself as "Melbourne’s newest, hottest flashpackers".
