Volunteer tourism, greenwashing and understanding responsible marketing using market signalling theory

Abstract

Voluntee r tourism has been heavily criticise d for its negative conse quence s on destinations and voluntee rs, often the dire ct result of unrealistic demand -led marke ting and lack of conside ration for the environmental and social costs of host communities. While some industry participants have responded through adhe rence to best practice, little information or support is available about how to responsibly market voluntee r tourism . This research uses an online content analysis based on the Inte rnational Voluntourism Guide lines for Commercial Ope rators to unde rstand the use of responsibility as a marke t signalling tool. Five influential web pages of eight organisations are scored across 19 re sponsibility crite ria and compared against the organisation's le gal status, product type and price .We find that responsibility is not used for marke t signalling; prefe re nce is give n to communicating what is easy, and not wha t is important. The status of the organisation is no guarantee of responsible practice, and price and responsibility communications display an inve rse relationship. We conclude voluntee r tourism ope rators are ove rpositioning and communicating responsibility inconsistently, which highlights greenwashing, requiring at least industry-wide codes of practice, and at be st, regulation. This pape r refle cts on its methodological limitations, and on its practical achievements in e ncouraging change within some of the organisations examined. Victoria Smith is a graduate from the MSc Responsible Tourism Management at LeedsMetropolitan University. Dr Xavier Font is Reader at the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism andHospitality at Leeds Metropolitan University. His research focuses on understanding reasons for pro-sustainability behaviour and market based mechanisms to encourage s ustainable production and consumption. IntroductionVolunteer tourism (VT) is a hybrid concept, bringing together international volunteering and tourism, "the practice of individuals going on a working holiday, volunteering their labour for worthy causes" (Tomazos, 2009a:196). VT is often promoted as a way to experience authenticity within the context of an alternative tourism beneficial to destinations, leading to expectations of a responsible tourism ethos. The purpose is often "aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society; the restoration of certain specific environments or research into aspects of society or environment" (Wearing, 2007:1) alongside touristic activities. However, as VT grows in popularity, the true value and costs with regard to the triple bottom line are being called into question (Goodwin, 2011;Wearing, 2001).VT organisations have come under criticism for being overly profit-driven, overpromising benefits, harming destinations and creating customer dissatisfaction (Benson and Henderson, 2011;Crossley, 2012;Simpson, 2004;Tomazos and Cooper, 2012). In this issue of this journal, Taplin, Dredge and Scherrer (2014) outline a monitoring and evalua...

Marketing and communication of responsibility in volunteer tourism

“…The latter two are now being the top performing criteria, followed by "Local Community First" (was +23, now +29). As stated in Smith and Font (2014), Conservation was possibly easier to communicate due to more clear objectives and reporting with scientific data, thus was possibly over-represented within the mix of results. It has perhaps now fallen into a more realistic position, proportionate to the volume of conservation amidst more humanitarian initiatives, and due to improvements in communicating the positive purpose and ultimate impacts of volunteer tourism, although there is still a long way to go towards maximum scores (+2*5 pages*8 organisations = 80).…”

Verhaal achter vrijwilligerstoerisme

“…Vis (2007) Onderzoek suggereert dat de beweegredenen van vrijwilligers vooral gerelateerd zijn aan de ontwikkeling van de eigen persoonlijke en professionele doelen (Sin, 2009;Tomazos & Butler, 2009). De keuze voor vrijwilligerswerk wordt vooral bepaald door wat de vrijwilliger zelf wil en in mindere mate gedreven door de vraag welke vorm van hulp lokaal nodig en nuttig is (Smith & Front, 2014).…”

The representation of voluntourism in search engines: The case of South Africa

“…In this regard, it is widely accepted that voluntourism should generate a positive impact for locals in host destinations, and a mutually beneficial host-guest relationship in a tourist destination (McIntosh & Zahra, 2007;Sin, 2010). Nonetheless, despite the growing body of research in the field (McGehee, 2002;Brown & Morrison, 2003;Lupoli et al, 2014;Smith & Font, 2014), most studies focus on volunteers, examining their motivations and experiences (Wearing & McGehee, 2013). Few studies to date (McGehee & Andereck, 2009) discuss the role of voluntourism and its implications for hosting communities (e.g.…”

“…Taplin et al, 2014;Smith & Font, 2014), voluntourism can be considered a promising and interesting research area in the Southern African Context. Furthermore, the online domain of voluntourism is unexplored in the academic literature, and this relates particularly to issues of its visibility and accessibility through search engines.…”