Blogs of Israeli and Danish backpackers to India

Based on an interpretative analysis of on-line diaries (blogs) written by backpackers from Israel and Denmark, this paper offers a comparison of the way in which the meeting with a foreign culture (India) is presented by writers from different national backgrounds. We distinguish between “cosmopolitans” who are willing to engage with members of a different culture and “provincials” or “locals” who mostly remain rooted in their own culture. Though both types of tourists can be found among the diary writers from both nationalities, the question remains whether one or the other type can be considered as dominant and characteristic of the touristic discourse constructed by the writers from these two particular nations.