ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how volunteer tourism experiences may be religious or spiritual in nature. Tourism experiences are no longer considered to be shallow and peripheral to an individual’s life. Recent years have seen a growth both in terms of the number of participants and the number of volunteer experiences being offered around the world. Motivations to engage in volunteer tourism and the personal meaning derived from volunteer experiences are often complicated and multi-faceted. Spirituality and religion differ in that not all people hold religious beliefs; however, all are spiritual, even though they may not consider “spiritual” to be the correct label to describe the core constructs shared by both religion and spirituality. Motivations to engage in volunteer tourism may also be driven by secular means. The motivation to “escape” the pressures of modern life and experience a wholly new destination has been illustrated many times in the tourism literature.
