Backpacking Generation: How Baby Boomers Reinvented Travel

The beatnik legacy

The vogue for backpacking originated in the United States under the influence of beatnik writers, poets and travelers of the previous generation: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and especially Jack Kerouac, whose novel On the Road acts as a manifesto. These hobos (“vagabonds”, in English) restless, fond of meetings and discoveries, are fans of freedom, wide open spaces, jazz, the refusal of conventions, artificial paradises, pacifism, even Buddhism.

Their thoughts, although a little nebulous, permeate all aspects and inspire the protesters of the sixty-eight movement, the opponents of the Vietnam War, the hippies of San Francisco, as well as pop and folk figures like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, or even the actor and director Dennis Hopper who directed, in 1969, the film Easy Rideremblematic model of the road movie. Young people are passionate about “nomads” perceived as heroes, such as Che Guevara, Mahatma Gandhi, the explorer Alexandra David-Néel, and even the tutelary figure of Tintin, the famous globe-trotter.

Travel cheaper, travel further

In France, where we like to recall the eminent role of Stendhal, the first author to have introduced the word “tourist” into French-speaking literature in 1838, it is a very young man born in 1951, Philippe Gloaguen, who seizes the spirit of the times. Returning from a long trip to the Orient, he decided in 1973 to publish a practical and endearing account, written in a very direct style, a sort of travel manual for young, broke people: where to eat, where to sleep, what to see and visit without spending a fortune? We know the rest: the catalog of Backpacker’s Guide today has more than 150 titles, distributed in 60 million copies throughout the world. This phenomenal editorial success can be explained by the perfect match between the expectations of baby boomers and the new philosophy of travel, a sweet blend of simplicity, kindness, optimism, respect for people and belief in universal brotherhood.

In 1973, the first Routard Guide was published. In 317 pages and in a very direct style, he discusses around twenty countries, between Paris and Nepal.

© DR

But another good fairy, this one very material, will preside over the success of the backpacker spirit. At the turning point of the 1970s and 1980s, the first charter planes took off, such as those chartered by the tour operator Nouvelles Frontières. These cheap flights allow millions of young adventurers to discover the vast world: the paths of Kathmandu, the skyscrapers of New York City, the riads of Marrakech, the Inca temples of Cusco, the night markets of Hong Kong or even the bistros of Ibiza, and to bring back harvests of memories from all these places.

Come to think of it, was that such a good thing? At the time, no one doubted it. But the rise of low-cost airlines from the 1990s will move the world from the era of mass tourism to that of overtourism. And today, our perception of the planet has changed: we are rightly concerned about the pollution caused by proliferating air traffic.

Was democratizing travel a mistake?

We denounce the flooding of cities like Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam by waves of visitors who are not always respectful of the place. Was democratizing travel a mistake? Proponents of the backpacker spirit defend themselves against this. They recommend flying sparingly and varying destinations. The real problem, they point out, is that 95% of travelers persist in cramming onto only 5% of the earth’s surface. Our boomers, so criticized these days, will have opened doors, allowed a mixing, discoveries and encounters that were hitherto impossible, and if they have not made the world perfect, they will have at least tried to make it better – and perhaps they have succeeded a little. However, let the rising generations be reassured : much remains to be done.

➤ Article published in the magazine GEO Histoire n°106, “The (baby) boomers, their dreams, their audacity, our freedoms”, from March-April 2026.

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