Volunteer Tourism

Theoretical Frameworks and Practical Applications

Angela M. Benson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781136989346
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Volunteer Tourism is one of the major growth areas in contemporary tourism, where tourists for various reasons seek alternative goodwill experiences and activities. To meet this demand there has been a surge in volunteer programmes offered in range of destinations organized by a variety of charities and tour operators which is predicted to continue to grow in the future.

Volunteer Tourism provides an in-depth analysis of the complex issues associated with traditional and contemporary volunteer tourism. Reflecting the growth in this phenomenon, this book provides a cohesive collection of chapters written from a range of international expert scholars and researchers. The theoretically rich, practically applied and empirically grounded contributions are based on current and diverse research in the area. This groundbreaking volume explores topics which have not been addressed in the literature before, such as the impact on host communities, introducing new areas and ideas to the field. The diverse range of themes are identified and addressed, including volunteer tourism and sustainability to, uniquely, the examination of volunteer tourism stakeholders – volunteers themselves, the host-to-guest exchange, and the organizations – and management of volunteers. These themes are examined in a range of international case studies, demonstrating the wide range of issues associated with volunteer tourism.

This volume is a timely addition offering an innovative approach to the area. Volunteer Tourism will be of interest to both students and researchers interested in tourism, leisure and development, as well as non-academics, practitioners, NGOs government officials at all levels.

1 Volunteer tourism

Theory and practice

Angela M. Benson

Introduction

The study areas of both tourism and volunteering have long and established histories, both domestically and internationally. The association between volunteering and travel has its roots in the nineteenth century when missionaries, doctors and teachers travelled to aid others; it is more recent that volunteer tourism has become a global phenomenon with future market predictions indicating growth both in size and value (Mintel, 2008; Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM), 2008). According to the Lasso Communications survey (in Nestora et al., 2009), 2009 was another year of predicted growth with 62 per cent of volunteer tour operators expecting to send more volunteers abroad than the previous year, 16 per cent sending a similar amount and 20 per cent expecting to send less. At present there are no clear statistics to the size of the volunteer tourism market with the majority of figures being derived from website hits (see Chapters 3 and 14), volunteer surveys and supply side operators. Mintel (2008) estimated that the market reached US$150 million in 2006, TRAM (2008) suggests that ‘the total expenditure generated by volunteer tourism is likely to be between £832 million ($1.66 billion) and £1.3 billion ($2.6 billion)’ (p.42) ‘with a total of 1.6 million volunteer tourists a year’ (p.5).

The volunteer tourism sector has seen a proliferation of organisations moving into this market place. Whilst many of the volunteering opportunities are often linked to charitable organisations, it is also evident that some of the growth in this sector is by profit-making companies, and whilst some of these can be linked to social entrepreneurship others are purely commercial. The projects on offer are wide ranging: social, community conservation, ecological health and educational. The marketplace is already becoming segmented with programmes being directed towards individuals, families, groups, students (in particular the gap year students), career breaks and the corporate market. With an ever-growing myriad of pricing structures, for example, organisations are now advertising: free projects (although you have to buy your own flights); discounted projects; and low cost projects, while other organisations just quote a price. This growth and segmentation of the marketplace has produced a range of resources, websites and publications, which are regularly updated, largely descriptive but offer information that outlines the numerous volunteer tourism projects available (for example Ausender and McCloskey, 2008; Hardy, 2004; Heyniger, 2007; Hindle et al., 2007). The message of some of this material has changed over recent years and now includes challenging the ethical status of volunteer tourism rather than the previous passive acceptance of volunteer tourism as a ‘saving the world’ concept.

The growth of the volunteer tourism product in the marketplace has been accompanied by academic activity and slowly a body of research has emerged. Whilst there were a small number of fragmented articles prior to 2000, the book by Wearing (2001) Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that make a Difference seemed to act as the catalyst for the literature that followed. Since then there have been two further academic books (Holmes and Smith, 2009; Lyons and Wearing, 2008) and the publication of this edited book (2010). In 2003, a special edition, featuring eight articles, in the journal Tourism Recreation Research was devoted to the subject of volunteer tourism with Stephen Wearing acting as the guest editor. In 2009 another special issue on volunteer tourism edited by Lyons, Wearing and Benson was published by the Annals of Leisure Research, with many of the articles being developed papers from the International Symposium of Volunteering and Tourism that was held in Singapore in June 2009. Within the growing number of journal articles that have been published over the last decade the research has focused heavily on the volunteer (Benson and Siebert, 2009; Brown and Lehto, 2005; Brown and Morrison, 2003; Campbell and Smith, 2006; Galley and Clifton, 2004; McGehee and Santos, 2005; Mustonen, 2005; Stoddart and Rogerson, 2004) and more specifically the self (Wearing, 2002, 2003; Wearing and Deane, 2003; Wearing and Neil, 2000). A number of studies have focused on volunteer tourism and host communities (Broad, 2003; Clifton and Benson, 2006; Gard McGehee and Andereck, 2009; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2003; Singh, 2002, 2004) and in particular cultural aspects (Lyons, 2003; McIntosh and Zahra, 2005; Raymond and Hall, 2008). Wearing et al. (2005) examined NGOs as a key stakeholder between volunteer tourists and communities. A small number of papers have engaged in research linked to the organisations and management: Wearing (2004) has concentrated on conservation organisations; Coghlan (2007) examined a number of volunteer tourism organisations and offered an image-based typology; a further study by Coghlan (2008) explored the role of organisation staff. Blackman and Benson (2010) reviewed the role of the psychological contract in managing volunteers. Raymond (2008) studied the role of sending organisations and the extent to which they make a difference and Benson and Henderson’s forthcoming article (2011) conducted a strategic analysis of research volunteer tourism organisations. To some extent this edited book mirrors the last decade of literature, in that the majority of the chapters are concentrated on the volunteer, a small number pick up on the theme of the volunteer – host relationship and organisations/ management. Clearly, the volunteer remains the focus of current research on volunteer tourism.

Volunteer tourism: theoretical frameworks and practical applications

Reflecting the growth in volunteer tourism, this book provides a collection of chapters about tourism and volunteering that is theoretically rich, practically applied and empirically grounded. The contributions are from a range of international scholars who identify and address complex issues associated with both traditional and contemporary volunteer tourism. The current literature on volunteer tourism has contributors from Europe, Australia and the US; this book echoes this, in that authors from around the globe have contributed.

The book is aimed at two kinds of reader. The first is the academic community, as it is intended to provide a contribution to the literature on volunteer tourism: researchers, academic staff and students at all levels; undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD candidates who have a specific interest in volunteer tourism but also across a broader range of curriculum areas which includes tourism studies and management; development and communities studies; leisure studies, cultural geography, volunteer studies and management, non-profit management and sociology. The second audience is non-academic, which includes practitioners, NGOs, policy makers and governments. To this end, this book acts as an important source to develop knowledge and understanding of this significant social movement particularly in light of volunteer tourism being a worldwide phenomenon with much of the volunteer activity taking place in underdeveloped and developing countries or countries in transition. It is anticipated that the growing number of practitioners, both commercial and non-commercial operators, that supply the volunteer tourism product in an international marketplace would find this book useful when developing their volunteer management and marketing strategies, as it identifies both theoretical and practical application for their consideration.

The book consists of two parts. Part 1 focuses on the ‘volunteer: motivations, experiences and the self’ and consists of seven chapters (2–8). All of these chapters are from the perspective of international volunteers taking part in projects in developing countries with case study data collected from around the globe: South Africa (Chapter 2), Nicaragua (Chapter 3), Nepal (Chapter 4), Guatemala (Chapter 5), Sabah, Malaysia (Chapter 6), Pacific and Asia (Chapter 7), Israel (Chapter 8) and mainland Malaysia (Chapters 3 and 9). Chapter 2 by Alexander and Bakir highlights a number of the issues related to understanding the term ‘voluntourism’, in particular drawing attention to the terms ‘volunteer tourism’ and ‘voluntourism’. As part of the theoretical construct in trying to determine an understanding of the concept of voluntourism they use the voice of the volunteer. The issue of terminology spills over from Chapter 2 into Chapter 3, where Dalendiz and Hampton examine two groups of volunteers – the VOLUNtourists and volunTOURISTS. The analysis of motivations of both groups is discussed and the issues of short-term and long-term volunteers are highlighted. In Chapter 4, Wickens highlights the volunteers’ journey of self-discovery through examining motivations, cultural experience and in particular culture shock. Chapter 5 (Schott) continues the theme of motivation by examining the self-development motivations and experiences of a group of youths volunteering at an orphanage in the Guatemalan rainforest. Chapter 6 by Chan explores volunteer motivations and experiences by examining four volunteer tourist sites; the findings are used to suggest a developmental and promotional framework in order to better facilitate the management of both the volunteer and the sites. The last two chapters in this part are retrospective studies of volunteers. Zahra in Chapter 7 examines the motivation and experiences of volunteers by asking volunteers to reflect upon their volunteer experience (1989–2000). She draws on the narratives of volunteers in order gain insight into long-term and lasting impacts of t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Volunteer tourism
• Part 1 The volunteer
• Part 2 Expanding the boundaries of volunteer tourism research
• Index