International Volunteer Tourism Research Articles

From pilgrimage to volunteer tourism: A spiritual journey in the contemporary world

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explore how the experiences of international volunteer tourists can contribute to the rejuvenation of the concept of pilgrimage in the contemporary world. Through thematic analysis of the individual portraits, this paper identifies the intertwining of the rejuvenation of pilgrimage with the concepts of meaning, ritual, and transformative experiences within the context of international volunteer tourism. The findings suggest that the current understanding of pilgrimage in contemporary tourism surpasses the notion of a journey to a religious destination, transcending religion itself. This paper extends the comprehension of modern pilgrimage and spirituality, and highlights the necessity for further research into the complex interconnections between tourism, religion, and spirituality.

Navigating Unsettling Intercultural Issues of Volunteer Tourism: A Synthetic Review

In light of the burgeoning research and operational facets of international volunteer tourism, a discernible surge in the engagement of global volunteers for cross-cultural interactions within Global South communities has become increasingly evident. However, global volunteers encounter formidable challenges during their transition into and engagement with the local host community, stemming from a conspicuous paucity of intercultural awareness. This predicament poses a substantial impediment to the aspirational objective of effectuating a beneficial and constructive impact on cross-cultural interaction with the host community. With an intercultural sensitivity lens, this synthetic review examines the major issues surrounding cross-cultural understanding and interactive learning as well as discusses potential mitigating strategies that nurture intercultural sensitivity, making transition and participation more effective for the well-being of the host community. The review suggests that cultural stereotyping, ethnocentric behaviors, self-fulfilling behaviors of volunteers, and the absence of meaningful local participation in co-production of knowledge in volunteer tourism appear to be key factors affecting meaningful cross-cultural interactions and ethical behaviors. The proposed strategies including pre-departure training and orientation as educational discipline, aimed at facilitating cross-cultural immersion, assimilation and interaction, seem to be neglected in practice of volunteering tourism. This oversight undermines the effectiveness of these crucial initiatives in achieving their intended outcomes.

Service learning via tourism volunteering at university: skill-transformation and SDGs alignment through rite of passage approach

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how university students experience a skill transformation process aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This transformation occurs through their participation in a service-learning programme alongside an international volunteering project. The theoretical framework for understanding this skill transformation process is based on the “rite of passage”.Design/methodology/approachQualitative methodology is adopted by conducting 23 online surveys with volunteers (virtual and onsite) and five with coordinators across the rite of passage phases. Volunteering was carried out in five Mayan indigenous communities in Mexico as part of an international cooperation project with the goals of supporting community-based tourism development and strengthening volunteers’ skills in accordance with the SDGs.FindingsResults show that international volunteering programmes for university students significantly enhance their interpersonal and professional skills, demonstrating strong potential for implementing the SDGs. These programmes provide learning and education opportunities for both volunteers and local communities. Volunteers gain a broader perspective on gender equality and cultural barriers. Additionally, volunteering supports sustainable tourism, economic worth and collaboration among institutions. Both volunteers’ personal characteristics (educational level and sociocultural context), as well as their sociocultural context, influenced the perception of the skill transformation process and learning about the SDGs. Finally, a new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed.Practical implicationsThis research examines the practical ramifications of incorporating volunteer programmes into university courses. Universities must include these initiatives in their educational systems as a means of enhancing student learning.Social implicationsA new educational university programme in volunteering aligned with SDGs is proposed. This study suggests a shift in university mindset, as well as increased funding for training and adherence to the SDGs.Originality/valueThis study pioneers the rite of passage framework in an international volunteer tourism project facilitated by universities, emphasizing volunteering as a valuable tool for SDG implementation, considering the interrelationships between objectives.

Netnography and volunteer tourism: Critical reflections on conducting online research during a global pandemic

COVID-19 curtailed a significant amount of research in the field, forcing social scientists to consider the future of fieldwork. Netnography seems to offer a covid-resistant alternative to traditional fieldwork methods. This paper expands knowledge of the netnographic approach, focusing on a study of spirituality in international volunteer tourists' experiences. It explores the potential of netnography as a research tool within the context of ongoing concerns around the viability and sustainability of physically travelling to collect data. As such, this paper presents a critical, reflective analysis of the main author's experience in conducting netnographic research during the pandemic, presenting the challenges and limitations, as well as the benefits of the method.

Chinese narrative in international development and volunteer tourism: a case study of a Chinese organisation’s practice in Mathare, Kenya

Volunteer tourism has become an increasingly popular phenomenon over the globe in recent decades. However, less attention is being paid to the receiving end of volunteer tourism and there are rarely narratives from Chinese figures. This paper seeks to address this research gap not only in volunteer tourism, but in a broader context of international development. By analysing a Chinese volunteer tourism organisation’s practice in Mathare, Kenya, this paper discusses the distinctiveness and commonality of the Chinese development approach from the national–international level to the grassroots level. It illustrates the rather polarised debate amongst the key stakeholders involved in this study, about prioritising the physical or psychological dimensions of the local needs, which further highlights the unchallenged structural inequality in Chinese development interventions of volunteer tourism. Considering forms of power among stakeholder groups and across levels, the research makes recommendations for Chinese volunteer tourism from which collaborations and a higher level of community empowerment can happen.

Leisure and the “White-Savior Industrial Complex”

Representation of, and service to, “underrepresented” and “disadvantaged” groups often denote goals sought by leisure researchers and practitioners. The motivations behind these goals are varied, often harkening themes of social justice and equity. As a potential counternarrative to these motivations, the writer Teju Cole, posited the “White-Savior Industrial Complex.” While originally positioned in the context of Western humanitarian aid, Cole’s thesis that White, hegemonic groups seek to do good while also satisfying their own emotional needs can also apply to leisure research and practice. Through parallel analyses employing Cole’s framework, we identify the enactment of White Saviorism in three exemplative leisure practices: (1) international volunteer tourism, (2) diversification efforts in outdoor recreation, and (3) youth development programming in urban communities. Ultimately, our aim is to encourage leisure researchers and practitioners to engage in a critical reflection in how the field pursues equity and social justice work, and to assess conscious and unconscious biases that influence questions asked and services provided.

Motivations of international volunteer tourists working with elephants in Thailand

ABSTRACT This study examines the motivations of Western volunteer tourists at ElephantsWorld, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. An interpretive paradigm utilizing a qualitative research approach was adopted. The informants included 24 volunteer participants. Data were collected through a combination of semi-structured interviews and participant observation, and were analysed by thematic analysis. The findings of the research identify six main motivations: (i) to have close interactions with elephants; (ii) to gain in-depth understanding of local culture; (iii) to have new experiences; (iv) to relax; (v) a good match between the project/objective of the host organization and the tourists’ needs and conditions; and (vi) the image and attractiveness of Thailand. These six motivations represent the co-existence of altruistic and self-interested motivations and their roles in influencing the decisions of animal-related volunteer tourists. They also indicate that while some volunteer respondents were driven by motivational factors related to the protection and well-being of the elephants (which is the objective of the volunteer tourism project), others were motivated by other, more self-interested factors that were not related to the main objective of the project at all.

Benefits and opportunities of international volunteer tourism – sustainable travel post pandemic

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines the volunteer tourism industry. It looks at its history and rapid development in order to shed light on the dark side if this industry. It shows that volunteering can be exploitative and oftentimes fails to deliver benefits to local communities due to a focus on profit and the demand side. It also demonstrates how meaningful projects are hard to find and what needs to be done to match and prepare volunteers more adequately. The authors highlight what both travelers and the industry can do to develop a more balanced and beneficial volunteer experience post covid.

Participate in volunteer tourism again? Effect of volunteering value on temporal re-participation intention

The primary purpose of this study was to explain the relationship between a volunteer's volunteering value, their volunteer attitude, global life satisfaction, and their temporal re-participation intentions. The moderating role of the ascribed responsibility in the relationship between global life satisfaction and the re-participation intention was also scrutinized. A quantitative survey was conducted with volunteer tourists who completed an international volunteer tourism program. A total of 337 usable questionnaires were collected, and they were used for the data analysis. The results from the structural equation modeling analysis verified the second-order structure of the volunteering value and its effect on the volunteer attitude, which subsequently affected the global life satisfaction and the temporal revisit intentions. This study demonstrated that volunteer tourism organizations could encourage the re-participation intentions from short-term, mid-term, and long-term viewpoints. The significant moderating role of the ascribed responsibility existed in the relationship between the global life satisfaction and the long-term intention to re-participate in volunteer tourism.

Hedonic and Utilitarian Performances as Determinants of Mental Health and Pro-Social Behaviors among Volunteer Tourists.

International volunteer tourism is an emerging and sustainable trend of the global tourism industry. In this study, we attempted to provide a clear comprehension of volunteer tourists’ mental health increase and pro-social intention formation. A survey method and quantitative approach were used. Our result from the structural analysis showed that hedonic and utilitarian performances, mental health, and volunteer tourism engagement had significant associations and that these relationships contributed to improving pro-social intention. In addition, results from the metric invariance assessment revealed that the volunteer tourism engagement and pro-social intention relation was under the significant influence of problem awareness and ascribed responsibility. Mental health and engagement acted as significant mediators. The comparative importance of volunteer tourism engagement was uncovered. Overall, our results provided a sufficient understanding of volunteer tourists’ pro-social decision-making process and behaviors.

The Relative Importance of Volunteer Tourism (Sustainable/Pro-Social Form of Tourism) Motivation Factors for Young Tourists: A Descriptive Analysis by Continents, Gender, and Frequency

Volunteer tourism is a vital formation of altruistic and sustainable tourism. This research is aimed to empirically find the relative importance of the motivation factors and the motivation realization factors for young tourists participating in the global volunteer tourism programs. The differences in the study variables across continents, gender, and frequency of participation were also scrutinized. A quantitative research approach that utilized the survey method was employed. The outcomes showed that personal development was the most vital motivator for global volunteer tourism. On the other hand, the young tourists felt that they most realized the factor of a new experience through their recent international volunteer tourism experience. The motivation factors and the motivation realization factors were consistent across the continents. Furthermore, the mean differences in the motivations, the motivations’ realization, satisfaction, and the behavioral intentions were revealed to be non-significant for the genders and the frequency of volunteer participation. By grasping the young volunteer tourists’ motivations and the experience evaluations, the volunteer programs can be advanced in consonance with their necessities and demands, which enhance the volunteer tourism experience.

International solidarity, volunteer tourism and travel writing: Mexico and Central America in Spanish and English

This article discusses the intersection of ethnographic, reflexive and anecdotal styles in travel writing produced out of contemporary international volunteer tourism, and analyses the impact of volunteer tourism on the production of a narrating subject and on the representation of host communities. The comparison of a primary work in Spanish (Herminia Esteban’s 2004 Un viaje solidario) with one in English (Cate Kennedy’s 2005 Sing, and Don’t Cry) allows us to better understand the specific historical, cultural and linguistic dimensions of different routes and encounters, as well as travel writing’s potential – and its limitations – in expressing a broader critique of global inequality. The texts are analysed to foreground the quotidian aspects of mobility and degree of authorial transparency regarding the terms under which volunteer activities take place. Extending from this analysis of the authors’ reflexivity, awareness and expression of critical engagement, the article explores the nature of representation in the narration of encounters between privilege and poverty, and frames these in relation to the ethical dimensions of contemporary practices of solidarity-based volunteer travel.

중기 해외 자원봉사관광에 참여한 대학생의 심리적 계약 위반 지각과 정서적·행동적 반응

중기 해외 자원봉사관광에 참여한 대학생의 심리적 계약 위반 지각과 정서적·행동적 반응

International volunteer tourism and youth travelers – an emerging tourism trend

ABSTRACTThis study attempted to examine the intricate associations among volunteer tourism (VT) motivations, overall image, satisfaction, trust, and the influence of these relationships on behavioral intentions among youth travelers. Our findings from the structural analysis indicated that VT motivations significantly contributed to building positive images, inducing satisfactory VT experiences, and building trust with a VT organization. Our results also demonstrated the competence of the higher-order structure of VT motivations in explicating the intention formation. In addition, the overall image, satisfaction, and trust played an important mediating role. Moreover, satisfaction with VT experiences was of utmost significance in determining intentions.

Research on the Present Situation and Countermeasures of Teaching Quality of International Volunteer Tourism Project in Mabul Island

“International Volunteer Tourism” was born in Europe and America in 1920. It has a history of nearly 100 years, which experienced a rich evolution from simple initial scale to gradual maturity and internationalization. While vigorously promoting the development of education in poverty areas, world cultural exchanges, as well as world peace, the problem of International Volunteer Tourism has emerged, including high mobility of volunteers and instable local teaching quality. The author stayed in Malaysia for a week in charging of volunteer work, and researched by field investigation and described the severe living conditions and poor education of local students in Mabul Island. There are some problems in the development of international volunteers in Mabul Island, such as the high mobility of volunteers, incoherent teaching contents, and uneven teaching level. By analyzing the reasons and exploring solutions, the author puts forward three suggestions. First, strengthen publicity, combine government coercion and incentive policies. Second, advocate UNESCO to set up a unified teaching material and teaching plan for international volunteers worldwide. Third, encourage UNESCO and people who support the volunteer organization to set up foundations to relieve the financial pressure, as well as improving the quality of teaching in underdeveloped areas.

International volunteerism and development in Asia‐Pacific

In Asia, and across the “global South”, volunteerism has grown enormously in the last two decades. Hundreds of thousands of people now undertake work on development projects in poorer areas of the global South, and volunteerism has become a key way in which cross‐cultural encounters form relations of development between poor and rich countries and between marginal and empowered subjects. Reflecting this growth, geographical discussions of volunteerism have expanded over the past decade. While initial work lauded the benefits and positive potentials of international volunteerism, more recent work and popular media have increasingly questioned such views and suggested that, instead, international volunteerism has the propensity to replicate colonial relationships, and benefits are heavily skewed towards volunteers. These criticisms themselves bear witness to deeper structural and ideological concerns principally centred around the pervasive neoliberalisation of international volunteering and volunteer tourism. Yet, despite its critics, international volunteering remains one of the most common and easily accessible ways in which (any)one can “care for” or “do their part” to address social and economic injustices in the global South. This themed section extends critical discussions of volunteerism in Asia‐Pacific by questioning its developmental effects – including effects that are material, relational and discursive. Through the six papers in this themed section, and insights gained from fieldwork in Singapore, Japan, Cambodia and India, we consider the impacts of international volunteerism; the infrastructure and organisations promoting volunteerism; the subjective positionalities of volunteers; and how marginal populations experience volunteerism.

혁신확산이론으로 바라본 대학생 해외 자원봉사관광

혁신확산이론으로 바라본 대학생 해외 자원봉사관광

Cultural implications of international volunteer tourism: US students’ experiences in Cameroon

ABSTRACTA popular trend is for US colleges to organise short-term, self-funded trips for students to volunteer for several weeks in poverty-stricken communities in the global South. To explore the cultural implications of short-term, international volunteer projects, I undertake an ethnographic study of college students of who travel to a small village in Cameroon to improve the quality of drinking water and community health. I examine whether the volunteer tourism can serve as a unique opportunity to see beyond the African stereotypes to recognise the historical and structural context in which Africa continues to suffer. Although a trip such as this can be a disruptive event for students to critically evaluate the global privileges of Westerners, students tend to experience Cameroon through the lens of popular stereotypes about Africa and Western paternalism. The encounters with Africans in the absence of sufficient education about postcolonial Africa can affirm the stereotypes and cultural superiority formed in USA because students negotiate their actual experience in ways to confirm their perception of Africa. Therefore, seminars and workshops about the fundamental aspects about global inequality can help educate volunteers about the postcolonial context of foreign aid of Western countries for the Third World, and White privilege.

Will their absence make a difference? The role of local volunteer NGOs in home-stay intermediation in Ghana’s Garden City

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in home-stay arrangements in Ghana’s cultural city, Kumasi, and further assess NGO intermediation of home-stay from home-stay operators’ and international volunteer tourists’ perspectives.Design/methodology/approachA mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches is used to target three main stakeholders of volunteer tourism including international volunteer tourists, home-stay operators, and local NGOs.FindingsThere are seven major roles played by volunteer NGOs in the home-stay arrangement. However, from operators’ perspective, NGOs may hinder the economic viability of home-stay through inadequate/low payment.Originality/valueThe study highlights the unexplored brokerage role of NGOs in volunteer tourism in home-stay intermediation and its implications for sustainable tourism.

Teasing the boundaries of ‘volunteer tourism’: local NGOs looking for global workforce

Ongoing scholarly discussions on international volunteer tourism focus primarily on volunteer tourists as subjects and local communities as their near-static objects. This ethnographic study reverses that focus. Five developmental Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are explored as active agents that see tourists and travellers as a resource and a free workforce in Dharamsala's Tibetan diaspora settlement in India. These NGOs have found a unique way of increasing the volume of volunteer tourism by offering tourists and travellers accessible volunteering opportunities on the spot, particularly as English-language tutors for Tibetan newcomers. Tourists and travellers in Dharamsala are backpacker oriented and usually interested in Tibetan culture, representing a perfect target group for NGOs offering them meaningful encounters with Tibetans. This study aims to broaden the scope of scholarly discussion and conceptualization of volunteer tourism. It provides an example of how volunteer tourism could become an increasingly effective tool for NGOs in the Global South, in an increasingly equitable manner. It also demonstrates how the method found by the Tibetan NGOs contests the current critique of commodification in volunteer tourism. Within volunteer tourism, true empowerment of local communities can only occur when the locals are in control and able to set their own goals.