Archive Article: The Culture Eaters, 9th August 02.
November 29, 2008

We like to think of backpackers as pleasant, easy-going people who do not do any harm to people or to the environment. This may not always be the case.

Campbell Smith, himself a young person, has an article in the current edition of the new Australian current affairs magazine “The Diplomat”. He argues that when it comes to environmental vandalism and social exploitation, backpackers can hold their own against the worst excesses of any transnational corporation.

His article is entitled “The Culture Eaters”. Presumably this is a play on words from the title of an Australian best-seller on what we are doing to this country’s environment: “The Future Eaters”.

Campbell Smith argues that backpacking has become a franchise industry just like fast food or coffee. Backpacking has become a pre-fabricated worldwide formula that is easily constructed.

He writes as an angry anti-globalization campaigner. As a Melbourne-based person he was pleased to see the way that his home city hosted, so to speak, one of the largest anti-globalization rallies in recent years. He says that attending the rally that day meant for him the first time he felt that his generation had found its cause, its purpose, its mission. His parents had campaigned against the Vietnam War. Now he had his equivalent experience in the anti-globalization rally. In Melbourne he had complained about the fast food, franchise coffee shops, currency speculation, sweat shops in developing countries etc.

But then he travelled through Thailand and saw how backpacker industry had created its own evil form of globalization. What was once a small fishing village in the Gulf of Thailand had been refashioned for the backpacker industry with Internet cafes, tattoo parlours and drugs. In fact the arguments about what transnational corporations do for globalization can be equally applied to the backpacker industry.

First, the backpacker industry wrecks the local environment. The beach was littered with bottles, bottle tops, plastic containers and various other discarded items. The excessively loud music represented a form of noise pollution. Up to 8,000 people flock to the area at party time. A thriving marketplace can provide you with illegal substances that you never knew existed.

Second, the backpacking industry exploits the local workers and their conditions. As Smith asks: where else can you get a beachfront bungalow for only six dollars a day? This is the backpacker industry’s version of a factory sweatshop. The foreigners run the bars and local industry. Evidently, not much of the wealth trickles down to the poor local people.

Third, there is the impact of cultural imperialism. As Smith notes, we cannot blame McDonalds or Bill Gates. They did not bring the satellite dishes and Premier League soccer into the village. They did not put sausages and eggs on every breakfast menu from Thailand to Honduras.

In short, this is a nasty situation but without the usual suspects. The transnational corporations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund are not there. Therefore, the backpacking industry needs to check to see if it is part of the solution – or just part of the problem.

Broadcast On Friday 9th August 2002 On Radio 2GB’s “Brian Wilshire Programme” At 9pm And On 11th August 2002 On “Sunday Night Live” At 10.30pm