Flashpacker it is described in wikipedia as "A flashpacker shares some of the characteristics of a backpacker: a sense of independence, no fixed itinerary and relatively long periods of travel to more exotic and far-flung destinations. Whereas backpacking is traditionally associated with budget travel and destinations that are relatively cheap, flashpacking has an association of more disposable income while traveling and has been defined simply as backpacking with a bigger budget" This term seems to have sprung up back in the old days of backpacking otherwise known as 2006 (it seems like such an innocent time)My question is, now that we have started this worldwide recession/depression will the flashpackers flourish? Once 5 star travelers are now slumming it with the 20 something backpackers that criss cross the various trails in Asia and Central America. They do tend to favor private rooms over dorms and they have far more disposable income then their $30 USD a day backpacking counter parts. By the way $30 a day seems to be the typical budget of backpackers, that includes food and transportation (buses). As far as alternative travel goes, Flashpacking fits in nicely. It is a style of travel that seems to call for more gadgets to record the journey as well as stay in touch with family and business while on the road. That is why all hostels everywhere find themselves providing so many extras to satisfy them. This includes high speed internet, printers, computers and cable television. An entire industry has sprung up around this demographic as well and now packs with all kinds of extra storage for laptops, cell phones and GPS systems abound. I recently purchased the URL flashpacker.mobi and I intend to start a site that will be a meeting place for traveling flashpackers, a .mobi site that will be easily viewed on the high tech PDA that they all seem to carry.