Domestic Volunteer Tourism Demand in Slovakia

Abstract

The aim is to explore and evaluate the aggregate demand of the Slovak population for domestic volunteer tourism. The answers from 573 questionnaire respondents older than 15 years, selected by convenient sampling, were processed establishing a representative image of the Slovak population in terms of age and gender. The findings show an average 3-4% of the population participating in domestic volunteer tourism in Slovakia per year. While participation declines with age, it increases with higher education. The research confirmed that the volunteer tourism could be perceived as a combination of travel and volunteering not only in developing countries, but also in developed ones. It was also found that domestic volunteer tourism in Slovakia partly copies the development of volunteer tourism abroad and has the potential to grow. The demand of Slovak residents for domestic volunteer tourism is significant, and therefore, it is necessary to properly respond with consistent coordination of supply.

Volunteer Tourism: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The second research topic assessed the volunteer tourism industry. In this context, some authors implemented a marketplace perspective to evaluate the supply and demand for volunteer tourism (Pompurova´et al, 2020a(Pompurova´et al, , 2020bYamamoto & Engelsted, 2014). Moreover, other studies focused on the process of neoliberalization of the volunteer tourism industry, that is, the reproduction of behaviors that reinforce the power imbalance between the Global North and Global South (Gilbertson et al, 2021;Kadomskaia et al, 2021;Mostafanezhad, 2013a).…”

Potential of Voluntourism in Central Finland

“…Domestic market has its potential, but the motives for participation in domestic voluntourism activities are volunteer-specific, while in international voluntourism tourist-specific motives prevail. (Pompurova et al 2020. ) Modern humanists as an emerging tourist segment seeking to influence the problems of mass tourism through their own behavior and by demanding sustainability (Visit Finland 2014).…”