ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the motivation, experiences and the long-lasting impact on the lives of ten volunteer tourists who undertook their volunteering holidays between 1989 and 2000. This chapter highlights how volunteer tourism is ‘as much a journey of the self as it is a journey to help others’ (Wearing et al., 2008: 63). The researcher worked alongside some of the volunteers on the volunteer projects they participated in and for some, the researcher was aware that volunteer tourism experience had a significant impact on them and their future choices and direction in life. The research approach can be classified as ethnographic case studies because of the small sample, detail and the in-depth and personal nature of the narratives. This chapter is a longitudinal study providing evidence of the volunteering experience leading to a change in life course. The changes are presented in the context of the motivations to undertake the volunteering experience, the experimental experience (Cohen, 1979) and the long-lasting changes in the years following. Literature on volunteering is very broad. This study is situated within the research related to international volunteering. Weinmann (1983) and Carlson (1991) looked at personal development in relation to experiencing a new culture, and how it acts as a catalyst for volunteers to gain insights into alternative values, beliefs and ways of life. However, these studies did not explore the actual changes in the volunteers’ lives and their long-term impact. Volunteer tourism has intrinsic rewards; the potential to change participants’ perceptions about society, self-identity, values and their everyday lives. Indeed, previous volunteer tourism studies have reported how, from their volunteer tourism encounter, volunteers experience self-reflection, increased social awareness and support, and experience a subsequent change to their daily lives and belief systems (Arai, 2000; Broad, 2003; McGehee and Santos, 2005; Simpson, 2004; Stoddart and Rogerson, 2004; Wearing, 2001, 2002). The primary motivations of the volunteers were to experience a culture, go overseas, go on a holiday in which everything was organised and do something worthwhile. When they were confronted with suffering, poverty, cultures embedded with deep values devoid of materialism and consumerism, combined with the
cheerfulness of the host communities amid the lack of basic needs, each volunteer underwent a cathartic (Ryan, 1997; Zahra and McIntosh, 2007) and life-changing (Wearing, 2002) experience.
