Volunteer Tourism Organizations Research Articles

Wildlife Volunteer Tourism: Scientific and Educational Contributions in South Africa

Wildlife volunteer tourism has evolved into a popular form of sustainable tourism in South Africa. This form of tourism can exhibit both positive and negative impacts on a host destination. However, limited research has examined the potential contributions of wildlife volunteer tourism in South Africa. This paper focuses on filling this theoretical gap by investigating the scientific and educational contributions of wildlife volunteer tourism in South Africa. An exploratory qualitative approach was followed, where seven managers of volunteer tourism organisations were interviewed in August and September 2022. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. From the results, it is clear that wildlife volunteer tourism makes significant scientific and educational contributions. However, funding remains a challenge. The results provided an increased understanding of wildlife volunteer tourism in South Africa, and is valuable to managers, and contributes to the current discourse on volunteer tourism as an emerging market segment.

The Phenomenon of Volunteer Tourism within the Tourism Industry

This review analyzes the present status of 'volunteer tourism' as a contemporary phenomenon and field of research. The basis of the review is founded on themes introduced more than a decade ago in "Volunteer Tourism": Experiences That Make a Difference (Wearing, 2001). The article commences by examining the rapid expansion of volunteer tourism in both academic research and practical application. It then scrutinizes the existing literature through a multi-stage framework that mirrors the volunteer tourism procedure. The paper comprehensively analyzes existing research on pre-trip motivations, volunteer tourism experience, and post-trip reflections and transformations. It specifically examines the role of volunteer tourism organizations and the community in facilitating the volunteer tourism experience. The conclusions of the study comprise suggestions for potential avenues of future research.

Feeling ready to volunteer after COVID-19? The role of psychological capital and mental health in predicting intention to continue doing volunteer tourism activities

The study attempted to examine the impact of young volunteer tourists' psychological capital and negative mental health/well-being issues caused by exposure to stressful events on their intention to continue doing volunteer tourism activities. Also, the aim was to examine the moderation of social and organizational support in the association between psychological capital, mental health/well-being, and volunteers' intentions. Findings from the structural analysis indicated that volunteer tourists' mental health/well-being issues could significantly impact their intentions. Also, it was shown that psychological capital was a strong predictor of undesirable behaviors and feelings for volunteer tourists. Hence, the results indicated that model of the Theory of Planned Behavior can be extended by inserting two new critical constructs (psychological capital and mental health/well-being issues) that can have effects on fostering tourists' intention to continue volunteering. In addition, organizational and social support played an important moderating role. Based on the proposed research model, we presented important implications for volunteer tourism organizations to meet volunteers’ needs and encourage positive intention.

Volunteer Tourism or Global Justice? An Autoethnography Examining My Roles as a Leader and Teacher

ABSTRACT Volunteer tourism has grown immensely in the last decade, and many participants are white students from predominantly Western universities. This autoethnography examines the cognitive dissonance I felt working as a leader within a US-based non-profit organization operating in Cape Town, South Africa. I systematically explore how my Latine and US cultures exacerbated the conflict between my understanding of cultural humility and fear of perpetuating paternalism. By triangulating qualitative and quantitative data from written personal memos, interviews, and survey responses (n = 108), I identify sources of my dissonance and strategies for achieving consonance by adopting a transformational leadership style. This study highlights the importance of cultural humility within volunteer tourism organizations by employing transformational leadership to encourage self-reflection among its permanent staff and temporary volunteers. The work stands to provide a reflexive guide for leaders of volunteer tourism and outlines how to develop strong relationships between volunteers, staff, and community members.

The Perception of Local Community towards the Impact and Support of Volunteer Tourism in Tioman Island

This study aims to investigate the perception and impact of volunteer tourism in Tioman Island. The local community perceptions of tourism activities may influence their support and future participation. Specifically, the paper includes a review of research in the scope of volunteer tourism, tourism impact and local community support. The existing literature profoundly supports the necessity of volunteer tourism in the local community. Kampung Juara (Juara Village), Tioman Island was chosen as the research setting, and 162 local communities were surveyed. This study discovered that the local community's perceptions of the impacts of volunteer tourism positively influenced their support in future volunteer tourism projects and development. Implications were discussed concerning the need for volunteer tourism organisations to include a variety of community stakeholders in the volunteer tourism development process.

Collaborations in volunteer tourism

ABSTRACT Despite Volunteer Tourism (VT) being firmly rooted in sustainability, there is a lack of detailed understanding of how the VT supply chain influences sustainability. Specifically, while recent analytical frameworks evaluating relations in the VT supply chain have detected power imbalances amongst the main stakeholders, little is known about how and why the different active components of VT stakeholders’ relations influence sustainability. Based on a case study of the four main stakeholders in VT (sending and receiving organizations, volunteers, and host projects), this paper illustrates the nuanced details of how collaborative relations within the supply chain can lead to sustainability. The study determines how and why VT organizations’ values are the main drivers for the VT supply chain to achieve sustainability outcomes. It demonstrates how operationalising power-sharing and shared decision-making throughout the whole supply chain enables VT to improve sustainability performance. In the surveyed host projects, accumulative short-term outcomes (based on skills transfer and confidence building) can facilitate long-term transformative change such as social mobility.

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.

Re-conceptualizing volunteer tourism organizations roles: A host perspective

While volunteer tourism organizations (VTOs) remain important intermediaries in the practice of volunteer tourism, questions remain on the role they play in serving the interests of host communities. This paper explores the role(s) of VTOs in a rural volunteer tourism hub in Ghana from a host community perspective using a phenomenological inquiry. An integrated framework of Critical/Institutional Analysis and Development (C/IAD) was used to examine host community experience with VTOs' role. Data was collected through focus group discussion and in-depth interviews with 43 residents of Asebu - Ghana. The study revealed that while VTOs act as facilitators and interpreters of local culture, issues of over-regulation and protectionism isolate guests from the host as well as rob some host of any meaningful socio-economic benefits and interactions.

Realistic evaluation as a volunteer tourism supply chain methodology

Volunteer tourism organisations are largely unaccountable for the claims they make about generating benefits from the projects that they sell. The few evaluations of how volunteer tourism projects fail or succeed tend to underestimate the importance of contextual factors affecting the mechanisms introduced to achieve a desired sustainability outcome. Realistic evaluation is a recently developed methodology to critically develop testable context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) propositions that explain what works, for whom, under which circumstances. Our study makes a theoretical contribution by uniquely integrating realistic evaluation with collaboration theory to study the volunteer tourism supply chain, in order to demonstrate how to develop an evaluative framework to map out the components of CMO configurations. Our study also makes a methodological contribution by unpacking the black box of the mechanisms to deliver sustainable change through the supply chain of the volunteer tourism industry, which can be subsequently used to systematically monitor and evaluate context-specific circumstances that affect how different volunteering supply chains affect the sustainability of the projects’ outcomes.

The impact of volunteer tourism on local communities: A managerial perspective

AbstractVolunteer tourism, as a potential tool for community development and sustainability, has been gaining the attention of researchers for the past decade. However, little empirical research exists about the impact of this activity on the host communities from the managerial point of view. The research, based on a qualitative study of managers' opinions from volunteer tourism organizations' leading programs worldwide, not only emphasizes the impacts of voluntourism but also suggests moving from a top‐down style of volunteering to a cocreation process. Contradictions emerge from the discourses of managers regarding the positive, negative, and long‐term impacts of voluntourism, and managerial implications are suggested.

Flipping the principal-agent model to foster host community participation in monitoring and evaluation of volunteer tourism programmes

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that stakeholder relationships in volunteer tourism represent principal-agent relationships. Using principal-agent (P-A) theory as a theoretical lens, this paper highlights types of relationships between host communities and volunteer tourism organisations most conducive for effective host community participation in the monitoring and evaluation of volunteer tourism programmes. Based on a survey of 80 organisations, followed by qualitative interviews with representatives from 29 organisations, the research concludes that ‘flipping’ or reversing the conventional P-A model opens up a new perspective on principal-agent relationships in volunteer tourism. This in turn highlights opportunities for facilitating more effective host community participation in monitoring and evaluation which is seen as an essential element to the sustainability of volunteer tourism.

The liquid organization of volunteer tourism: Implications for responsibility

AbstractDrawing from developments in sociology and organizational studies, this paper argues for a new understanding of volunteer tourism as liquid organization. It aims to explore the organization of volunteer tourism using a liquid organization perspective and to better understand the potential implications of this liquidity on the responsibility of volunteer tourism organizations to host communities. The analysis is based on data collected from 80 volunteer tourism organizations. The findings reveal that the volunteer tourism organizations show characteristics of liquid organization to varying degrees. The significance of the research is to problematize the way in which the institutional characteristics of volunteer tourism are (not) conceptualized in current literature and to introduce liquid organization as a means of reinvigorating debate about responsibility.

Monitoring and evaluation practices of volunteer tourism organisations

ABSTRACTMonitoring and evaluation are tools that can facilitate sustainable and responsible tourism planning and management in organisations through encouraging good practice and the continuous improvement of programmes. However, to date, there is limited knowledge and understanding of how, or indeed if, volunteer tourism organisations actually monitor and evaluate their programmes. The aim of this paper is to identify and critically examine the extent to which volunteer tourism organisations engage with the monitoring and evaluation of their projects. Based on a survey of 80 organisations and qualitative interviews with representatives from 29 organisations, the research found that monitoring and evaluation practices vary greatly. Participants readily accept a lack of time and resources as barriers to monitoring an evaluation, there is an assumption that any volunteer-host community interaction is positive, and despite voluntary guidelines, there is little incentive to prioritise monitoring and evaluation of volunteer programmes. A small number of volunteer organisations emerged as an exception to this overall pattern and are discussed. Discrepancies between stated importance of monitoring and evaluation and actual practices are examined and opportunities for improved practices identified.

Forays into the backstage: volunteer tourism and the pursuit of object authenticity

ABSTRACTVolunteer tourism is a form of travel that combines traditional leisure pursuits with opportunities to volunteer in an organized fashion. The popularity of volunteer tourism stems from many factors, but the one motivation that appears in virtually every study is a desire for object authenticity, defined as the authenticity of toured objects, people, and settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by object authenticity in the motivations and experiences of volunteer tourists in the province of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Based on interviews with 62 volunteers and 15 directors, managers, and staff members from volunteer tourism organizations based in Chiang Mai, this paper argues that volunteer tourists conceive of object authenticity both as a package of cultural stereotypes focused on authentic people, and as authentic backstage settings where ‘real’ Thai reside. Aside from demonstrating that the desire for object authenticity is the central motivation for international volunteers in northern Thailand, this study indicates that the pursuit of object authenticity is complicated by language barriers, the potential staging of authenticity on the part of locals, and the need to balance familiarity with alterity in the carefully selected ‘voluntourscapes’ in which volunteer tourism takes place.

Marketing and communication of responsibility in volunteer tourism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether volunteer tourism organisations are prepared to learn from feedback on the quality of their responsibility communications, and consider whether analysis and communication of results can influence market improvement. Design/methodology/approach – A purposive sample of five influential website pages of eight volunteer tourism organisations are scored across 19 responsible voluntourism criteria, and compared against the results of two years previously. Findings – The authors report mixed results on how communicating results has encouraged change and industry improvement in responsibility, based on previous research that showed responsibility to be communicated inconsistently at best, potentially greenwashing at worst, across organisations, product types and responsible values. Research limitations/implications – The paper applies sustainability marketing literature to explain the changes in responsibility communication performance using an innovative tool to benchmark and audit responsibility in online marketing content and providing insight into how best practice marketing necessitates responsible operations. This paper considers whether and how, when presented with evidence, organisations choose to improve for a more responsible voluntourism offer. Originality/value – The paper is original in providing a practical, industry-informed analysis of the reasons why volunteer operators communicate in the way they do, and the ability to influence their communications to be more reliable, in the context of increased criticism for shallow volunteering. This experiment allows industry associations and lobby groups to influence industry practice based on the evidence that improved communications are possible when specific, tailored advice is provided.

Motivation-based transformative learning and potential volunteer tourists: facilitating more sustainable outcomes

Transformative learning (TL) is an important component of sustainable volunteer tourism experiences, potentially reducing unsustainable outcomes, and educating and enlightening volunteers. This paper reviews theories and issues about TL in volunteer tourism, and analyzes data from 1008 useable responses to an online survey of potential volunteer tourists. A factor–cluster analysis of potential volunteer tourists’ motivations identified key volunteer tourist segments and assessed differences in expectations of TL across each segment. Altruism remains the primary motivation, with personal development an expectation, but the study also found desires to experience different cultures, build relationships with family, and to escape one's daily life. Three motivation segments emerged: Volunteers, Voluntourists, and Tourists. Differences in the three clusters’ expectations for TL were assessed through multiple analysis of variance using items representing Taylor's three elements of TL: self-reflection, engaging in dialogue, and intercultural experience. Differences in TL expectations varied significantly across the three segments. Potential Voluntourists were most likely to expect to participate in TL opportunities. The paper concludes with suggestions for maximizing TL for each segment. Volunteers and Tourists may require activities that include different, less obvious forms of TL. Volunteer tourism organizations need to invest significantly in staff training in TL.

Assessing the Local Impacts of Volunteer Tourism: Comparing Two Unique Approaches to Indicator Development

Volunteer tourism is a rapidly growing form of alternative travel and one of its central pillars consists of generating beneficial impacts in host destinations. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to understand, identify or assess the impacts of volunteer tourism in host communities. One strategy to assess these impacts is by developing sociocultural, economic and environmental indicators. Literature on international development, social indicators and volunteer tourism suggests that indicator development should engage both host communities and volunteer tourism organizations (VTOs). This article presents an approach to accomplish this often difficult task. An online questionnaire solicited data from VTOs regarding indicators that they believe are most useful to understand the community impacts of their programs. Exploratory workshops in five host communities of volunteer tourism in Ecuador and Costa Rica generated additional indicators that are locally-relevant and appropriate. Data from these distinct approaches to indicator development are compared and contrasted to understand how they can be used to reflect the interests of both stakeholder groups. The compass of sustainability was used as a framework to guide indicator development for both the survey and the workshops and its potential to guide future initiatives is discussed. This research revealed the need to promote collaboration among VTOs and host communities to jointly develop indicators to ensure that volunteer tourism can address their mutual goals and needs.

Assessing the impacts of international volunteer tourism in host communities: a new approach to organizing and prioritizing indicators

This paper explores the use of indicators to evaluate the impacts of volunteer tourism in host communities, based on an online questionnaire sent to 183 volunteer tourism organizations. Little research exists demonstrating how volunteer tourism programs impact host communities or how impacts can be assessed, but the literature suggests the use of indicators to do so. Social indicator research and systems thinking assert that impact evaluation must be comprehensive and that indicators must consider interconnectivities present in the tourist system; we propose a framework of indicator development that addresses this. Data analysis focuses on volunteer tourist activities and how organizations prioritize indicators to assess diverse impacts of volunteer tourism in host communities. Comparisons are drawn between organizations in Latin America and international organizations (based in the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand) that send volunteers abroad. Differing volunteer activities suggest unique approaches between in-country and international organizations. The usefulness and degree of assessment of diverse indicators of the local impacts of volunteer tourism are quantified, while discrepancies between indicator usefulness and assessment raise questions. Comparisons between international and in-country organizations, large and small organizations, and organizations focusing on long-term vs. short-term trips suggest differing organizational priorities and impacts of volunteer tourism.

Monitoring and evaluating volunteer tourism: a review and analytical framework

The rapid expansion and commercialisation of the volunteer tourism sector and the potential for negative impacts on host communities have put the sector under increasing scrutiny. Monitoring and evaluation are key aspects of sustainable tourism planning and management, and play important roles in the project planning and implementation cycles of volunteer tourism organisations and destination managements. However, they can be both value-laden and politically charged, making an understanding of context, purpose and various approaches to monitoring and evaluation important. Drawing from evaluation and critical management studies, this conceptual paper reviews the literature, presenting an analytical framework aimed at improving the quality of monitoring and evaluation. The paper is positioned within the adaptancy platform and focuses on qualitative, critical approaches to evaluation. The framework highlights the important influence of context (the issue the volunteer tourism programme is addressing, the nature of the intervention, the setting, the evaluation context and the decision-making context), and identifies four dimensions of volunteer tourism (stakeholders, organisations, markets and programmes) which may influence monitoring and evaluation practices. The analytical framework presented is useful for practitioners developing monitoring and evaluation processes, and for researchers interested in empirical studies which seek to evaluate monitoring and evaluation practices.

Volunteer Tourism has Gone Commercial: The Reasons and the Implications

In the artilce 'Towards an Understanding of the Drivers of Commercialization in the Volunteer Tourism Sector, published in Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 37(2), 2012 ,' Coghlan and Noakes provide valuable perspective on the increasing commercialization of volunteer tourism (VT). This trend has been observed primarily with disapproval, but Coghlan and Noakes draw upon the broader universe of non-profit research to show that there are some valid reasons why non-profit VT organizations are commercializing. The paper therefore offers a noteworthy contribution to the subject, yet it is nonetheless worthwhile to reconsider and expand upon some of the key topics discussed. It is easy to lose sight of the unglamorous fundraising side of non-profits, so Coghlan and Noakes' first three drivers (VT organizations address complex issues, operate within a competitive sector, and manage multiple stakeholders) offer a useful reminder that non-profits require money to operate and this money is not always easily available. The three drivers are certainly valid for some organizations, but it should be emphasized that this applicability is limited. For example, claiming VT organizations address complex issues somewhat exaggerates many organizations' efforts by alluding to broader issues (e.g., education) instead of the simpler, less financially demanding goals generally espoused by VT projects (e.g., teaching English in a school). Likewise, the authors themselves acknowledge that as VT organizations commercialize they acquire a particularly complicated stakeholder group (i.e., volunteer tourists), which may even increase stakeholder management challenges. Furthermore, Coghlan and Noakes' list of moneyrelated drivers appears rather incomplete; possible additions could include the fickleness of alternative funding sources (e.g., individual donations, corporate gifts, government grants, etc.) and the potential to boost fundraising via exposure through VT.