Volunteering Attitude, Mental Well-Being, and Loyalty for the Non-Profit Religious Organization of Volunteer Tourism

Heesup Han,Pilar Tirado-Valencia,Soyeun Lee,Antonio Ariza-Montes

doi:10.3390/su12114618

Heesup Han, Pilar Tirado-Valencia + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114618

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jun 5, 2020
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Sejong University, Universidad Loyola Andalucía

Abstract

The present research aimed to explore volunteer travelers’ loyalty formation for the non-profit religious organization of volunteer tourism by considering the gender influence. A quantitative process along with a survey method was utilized to attain the research purpose. Our empirical results showed that awareness of the need, performance of the organization, attitude, and the mental well-being were critical contributors to increasing loyalty. Attitude and mental well-being were vital mediators. The performance of the non-profit religious organization included a comparative importance in building loyalty. In addition, gender moderated the effect of awareness of the need and performance of the organization on the travelers’ attitudes toward it. As very little is known about volunteer tourists’ behaviors, the current study satisfactorily provides an apparent comprehension regarding how their loyalty for the non-profit religious organization is generated and what factors drive this loyalty.

Highlights

Fostering individuals’ altruistic travel behaviors is an essential facet of moving toward a responsible tourism future across the world [1,2,3]
Building loyalty that contributes to maintaining the existing volunteers and attracting/recruiting new volunteer travelers is becoming the fundamental requisite of the success of the non-profit religious volunteer tourism organizations
Al-Ansi and Han [37] demonstrated that excellent destination performance induces Muslim travelers’ high value perception, favorable attitude toward the destination, and loyalty for it in the halal tourism sector. Their result was consistent with Song et al.’s [38] earlier research, which demonstrated the significant role of festival performance in engendering travelers’ fulfillment, positive attitude, and support intention. In reference to such empirical evidence, we propose that performance of the non-profit religious organization significantly affects attitude toward it and loyalty for the organization among volunteer travelers in the present research

Summary

Introduction

Fostering individuals’ altruistic travel behaviors is an essential facet of moving toward a responsible tourism future across the world [1,2,3]. Volunteer tourism activities are altruistic behaviors that are considered as a critical form of this type of responsible tourism [4,5,6]. Volunteer tourism is certainly an emerging tourism phenomenon, which is drawing increasing attention from international travelers [5,8]. Non-profit religious organizations are major players in boosting the growth of volunteer tourism [5]. Due to the abundant number of these types of organizations and the reduced capacity of them in the tourism marketplace, the key issue among non-profit religious volunteer tourism organizations is the long-term survival [1]. Building loyalty that contributes to maintaining the existing volunteers and attracting/recruiting new volunteer travelers is becoming the fundamental requisite of the success of the non-profit religious volunteer tourism organizations

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