Backpacker tourism in Chile as an expression of global youth subculture

Every year thousands of young people take trips lasting several months around the world while practising a non-structured or semi-structured kind of cultural tourism called 'backpacker tourism'. This experience produces a distinctive youth subculture with a global character. The article presents the results of a qualitative research project on backpackers conducted in Chile during 2011. The article shows, on the one hand, the similarities between the backpacker profile and subculture worldwide and backpackers in Chile and, on the other hand, suggests the presence of a particular ideology among Latin American backpackers.