Volunteer tourismDeconstructing volunteer activities within a dynamic environment

Finding oneself while discovering others: An existential perspective on volunteer tourism in Thailand

“…As mentioned earlier, Wang (1999) distinguishes between intra-personal and inter-personal existential authenticity, with the former consisting of bodily feelings and self-identity. Bodily feelings, which can include ''relaxation, rehabilitation, diversion, recreation, entertainment, refreshment, sensation-seeking, sensual pleasures, excitement, play, and so on" (Wang, 1999, p. 361), are mentioned by several authors as volunteer tourist motivations (Callanan & Thomas, 2005;Daldeniz & Hampton, 2011;Wymer, Self, & Findley, 2010).…”

“…The fastest growing example of this shift towards alternative travel experiences is volunteer tourism, which ''makes use of holiday-makers who volunteer to fund and work on social or conservation projects around the world and aims to provide sustainable alternative travel that can assist in community development, scientific research or ecological restoration" (Wearing, 2004, p. 217). The growth of volunteer tourism in recent years has been dramatic, both in terms of the number of individual participants, and the number of volunteer programs being offered around the world (Callanan & Thomas, 2005;Tomazos & Butler, 2009;TRAM, 2008). As volunteer tourism opportunities have proliferated globally, particularly in low-and middle-income countries, there has also been a corresponding expansion of scholarly interest in the motivations, consequences, and activities associated with volunteer tourism (Benson, 2011;Lyons & Wearing, 2008;McGehee & Santos, 2005;Wearing, 2001).…”

Appealing to Goodwill or YOLO-Promoting Conservation Volunteering to Millennials

“…Numerous studies have explored volunteering from a tourism perspective (Callanan and Thomas 2005;Raymond and Hall 2008;Soderman and Snead 2008;Wickens 2011), and yet the majority focused predominantly on the values of the volunteer and how these values translate into motives (e.g., Brown and Lehto 2005;Campbell & Smith 2006;Wearing 2001). In this line of reasoning, we explored the effects of person's regulatory focus on their perception of persuasive messages.…”

“…In an attempt to further clarify volunteers' motivations, (Benson and Seibert 2011) pointed out five essential drives: experience of something different/new, meeting international volunteers, learning about countries/cultures, living experience in another country, and mind-opening experience. This distinction between shallow, intermediate, and deep volunteers (Callanan and Thomas 2005) is of interest to organizations coordinating volunteer travel. Smillie (1995) for instance found that for-profit organizations prefer to engage with shallow volunteers, while non-profits favor deep volunteers.…”

“…This approach resulted in a few competing classifications of volunteers. Callanan and Thomas (2005), for example, distinguished between shallow (in pursuit of personal interests), intermediate, and deep volunteers based on location, project duration, focus (self-interest/altruistic), qualifications, active/passive participation, and contribution to local community. In an attempt to further clarify volunteers' motivations, (Benson and Seibert 2011) pointed out five essential drives: experience of something different/new, meeting international volunteers, learning about countries/cultures, living experience in another country, and mind-opening experience.…”