Role identity of staff in Chinese volunteer tourism sending organisations

Abstract

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the volunteer tourism sector had experienced sustained growth around the world, including in China where a dynamic volunteer tourism sector has emerged over the last decade. When analysing this sector through a future-focused, post-pandemic lens, it is important to pay attention to the resilience building of volunteer tourism staff to better respond to the recovery and restart stage of volunteer tourism. This reflects the pivotal role that sending organisations and their staff play in maximising good practice during volunteer tourists' selection, pre-departure preparation, orientation, and post-trip evaluation. Drawing on role identity theory, this paper explores how volunteer tourism staff in Chinese sending organisations perceive their role identities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 current and former Chinese volunteer tourist staff. The transcribed interviews were analysed through thematic template analysis. Results show that there are both conventional and idiosyncratic dimensions of Chinese volunteer tourism staff's role identity, and the 17 identified roles were grouped into four overarching roles, professional, supporter, influencer, and self-actualiser. Comprehending the role identity of volunteer tourism staff is crucial for shaping a robust career belief, as well as enhancing staff recruitment, training, and retention. This, in turn, can boost staff resilience in the volunteer tourism sector post-pandemic.