ABSTRACT
The study areas of both tourism and volunteering have long and established histories, both domestically and internationally. The association between volunteering and travel has its roots in the nineteenth century when missionaries, doctors and teachers travelled to aid others; it is more recent that volunteer tourism has become a global phenomenon with future market predictions indicating growth both in size and value (Mintel, 2008; Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM), 2008). According to the Lasso Communications survey (in Nestora et al., 2009), 2009 was another year of predicted growth with 62 per cent of volunteer tour operators expecting to send more volunteers abroad than the previous year, 16 per cent sending a similar amount and 20 per cent expecting to send less. At present there are no clear statistics to the size of the volunteer tourism market with the majority of figures being derived from website hits (see Chapters 3 and 14), volunteer surveys and supply side operators. Mintel (2008) estimated that the market reached US$150 million in 2006, TRAM (2008) suggests that ‘the total expenditure generated by volunteer tourism is likely to be between £832 million ($1.66 billion) and £1.3 billion ($2.6 billion)’ (p.42) ‘with a total of 1.6 million volunteer tourists a year’ (p.5). The volunteer tourism sector has seen a proliferation of organisations moving into this market place. Whilst many of the volunteering opportunities are often linked to charitable organisations, it is also evident that some of the growth in this sector is by profit-making companies, and whilst some of these can be linked to social entrepreneurship others are purely commercial. The projects on offer are wide ranging: social, community conservation, ecological health and educational. The marketplace is already becoming segmented with programmes being directed towards individuals, families, groups, students (in particular the gap year students), career breaks and the corporate market. With an ever-growing myriad of pricing structures, for example, organisations are now advertising: free projects (although you have to buy your own flights); discounted projects; and low cost projects, while other organisations just quote a price. This growth and segmentation of the marketplace has produced a range of resources, websites and publications, which are regularly updated, largely descriptive but offer information that outlines
2 Angela M. Benson
the numerous volunteer tourism projects available (for example Ausender and McCloskey, 2008; Hardy, 2004; Heyniger, 2007; Hindle et al., 2007). The message of some of this material has changed over recent years and now includes challenging the ethical status of volunteer tourism rather than the previous passive acceptance of volunteer tourism as a ‘saving the world’ concept. The growth of the volunteer tourism product in the marketplace has been accompanied by academic activity and slowly a body of research has emerged. Whilst there were a small number of fragmented articles prior to 2000, the book by Wearing (2001) Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that make a Difference seemed to act as the catalyst for the literature that followed. Since then there have been two further academic books (Holmes and Smith, 2009; Lyons and Wearing, 2008) and the publication of this edited book (2010). In 2003, a special edition, featuring eight articles, in the journal Tourism Recreation Research was devoted to the subject of volunteer tourism with Stephen Wearing acting as the guest editor. In 2009 another special issue on volunteer tourism edited by Lyons, Wearing and Benson was published by the Annals of Leisure Research, with many of the articles being developed papers from the International Symposium of Volunteering and Tourism that was held in Singapore in June 2009. Within the growing number of journal articles that have been published over the last decade the research has focused heavily on the volunteer (Benson and Siebert, 2009; Brown and Lehto, 2005; Brown and Morrison, 2003; Campbell and Smith, 2006; Galley and Clifton, 2004; McGehee and Santos, 2005; Mustonen, 2005; Stoddart and Rogerson, 2004) and more specifically the self (Wearing, 2002, 2003; Wearing and Deane, 2003; Wearing and Neil, 2000). A number of studies have focused on volunteer tourism and host communities (Broad, 2003; Clifton and Benson, 2006; Gard McGehee and Andereck, 2009; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2003; Singh, 2002, 2004) and in particular cultural aspects (Lyons, 2003; McIntosh and Zahra, 2005; Raymond and Hall, 2008). Wearing et al. (2005) examined NGOs as a key stakeholder between volunteer tourists and communities. A small number of papers have engaged in research linked to the organisations and management: Wearing (2004) has concentrated on conservation organisations; Coghlan (2007) examined a number of volunteer tourism organisations and offered an image-based typology; a further study by Coghlan (2008) explored the role of organisation staff. Blackman and Benson (2010) reviewed the role of the psychological contract in managing volunteers. Raymond (2008) studied the role of sending organisations and the extent to which they make a difference and Benson and Henderson’s forthcoming article (2011) conducted a strategic analysis of research volunteer tourism organisations. To some extent this edited book mirrors the last decade of literature, in that the majority of the chapters are concentrated on the volunteer, a small number pick up on the theme of the volunteer – host relationship and organisations/ management. Clearly, the volunteer remains the focus of current research on volunteer tourism.
