Contemporary Special Interest Tourism

Definition of Volunteer Tourism

“Volunteer tourism” applies to those who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holiday that might involve the aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some group in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment.(Wearing, 2001)

Introduction to Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism is a combination of travelling and volunteering. The motivation for volunteer tourism is people wanting to help others, make a difference to other peoples’ lives. There are thousands of opportunities for volunteer tourism to take place all over the world. From volunteer tourism, one can learn the way of life through first-hand experience, parts of culture and many other skills needed for survival. From the survey conducted by the Tourism Research and Marketing (2008), results shows that there are 1.6 million volunteers a year and that an estimation of US 1.7 -2.6 billion is spent on volunteer tourism. Volunteer tourism has been a worldwide interest and had been growing over the last 20 years.

Characteristic of Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism is for free-willed people to join, mostly are students who are on school holiday or adults who are not working. These target markets join volunteer tourism to experience hardship, as well as to learn the back staged sets of tourism. Part of these experiences may teach them more about the culture of the country as well as helping the community there to build a house or even a school.

In addition, volunteer tourism can be held anywhere. It can be at the jungles, rainforests or Sahara Deserts for wildlife conservation, in the Pacific Ocean or Amazon River for marine conservation and at rural areas w...

... middle of paper ...

...ey Morning Herald Special Supplement, Sydney

Holmes, K & Smith, K. (2009) Managing Volunteers in Tourism: Attractions, Destinations and Events, Nutterworth-Heinenmann, Burlington

McGehee, N.G. & Andereck , K.(2008). ‘Pettin’ the critters’: Exploring the complex relationship between volunteers and the voluntoured in McDowell Country, West Virginia, USA and Tijuana, Mexico. In: Wearing, S. & Lyons, K. (eds) Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism: International Case Study Perspectives. CAB International , Wallingford.

Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM)(2008). Volunteer Tourism: a Global Analysis. ATLAS Publication, Arnhem

Wearing, S. (2001). Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that Make a Difference. CAB International, Wallingford

Wearing, S. & McGehee, N.G.(2013). International Volunteer Tourism: Integrating Travellers and Communities. CAB International, Wallingford