A cousin of Backpacking, Flashpacking is Backpacking with a flash, or in style.
In the last years the travel market has witnessed the rise of travellers who want to see the world in a independent way (to say it with wikipedia: they eschew mass tourism and the package holiday concept promoted by travel or tour operators, in favour of a more individualistic and fluid approach to travel), and in this are very similar to Backpackers. At the same time though they prefer travel in some comfort: preferring a single en-suite room in a hostel to a dorm, choosing a low-cost airline flight to a 20-hours bus journey, trying to taste local cuisine even if should be more expensive than a budget meal, spending freely on various activities if they think it’s worth it.
Flashpackers tend to be also quite tech savvy, and often travel with tech gadgets like: laptop, netbook, iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, external hard drive, etc.
As a consequence the definitions for Flashpacking that you can find online tend to reduce the term to Backpacking on bigger budget or Backpacking with a lot of tech toys.
We believe that what makes the difference is the style, and thanks to more and more offers and the ability of finding them online Flashpackers can travel independently, afford some comfort and at the same time keep it within a reasonable budget.
More resources:
The FlashpackerGuide: What is Flashpacking
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