Death of a Backpacker: Incidental but Not Random

This case study of the fatal shooting of a backpacker by a policeman in the otherwise peaceful town of Pai in northern Thailand aims to show that, though incidental, it was not just a random occurrence. Rather, the event can be interpreted in terms of wider social structural processes and personal agency. The growing tension between the police and the backpackers in town, partly resulting from pressures to upgrade the community for more up-market domestic tourism, created the conditions for the occurrence of the event; but the personal predispositions of the main antagonists exacerbated these tensions, eventuating in tragic consequences. The article examines the contrasting versions of the event, and the ‘ethno-victimology’, implicit in the manner various groups of foreigners allocated the responsibility for the shooting between the antagonists. The article concludes that the event may have a negative effect on backpackers’ image of Pai (but not on the domestic tourists’ image), while the growth in the number of foreigners killed in Thailand may have an accumulative effect on the touristic image of the country as a whole. Some ideas for the further study of events in tourism are suggested.