This literature review is written by Mariska Kleintjes as part of her NHTV Master in Tourism Destination Management.

Volunteer tourism is a sector that can benefit both tourists and host communities (e.g. Wearing, 2001, 2002; Broad, 2003, Brown and Morrison, 2003, McGehee and Santos, 2005). However, existing research has primarily focused on the positive effects of volunteer tourism and the motivations of volunteers. Volunteer tourism is in general recognized as a form of alternative tourism (e.g. Wearing, 2001; Brown, 2005; Callanan and Thomas, 2005; McIntosh and Zahra, 2008; Matthews, 2008).

According to McGehee and Santos (2005, p. 760) volunteer tourism is “utilizing discretionary time and income to travel out of the sphere of regular activity to assist other in need.” Volunteer tourism is growing rapidly (Callanan & Thomas, 2005). However, it is not transparent what the effects of volunteer tourism are. According to Wearing (2001, p. 1) volunteer tourist are involved in “aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment.” In this way it is possible that volunteer tourists, take over the jobs and income of local people. This outcome has not been researched.

In this article the aim is to focus on creating awareness of possible negative impacts of volunteer tourism.

Only a small number of studies have oriented on host communities and found that volunteer tourism can be beneficial to them (e.g. Clifton and Benson, 2006; McIntosh and Zahra, 2008). The below mentioned authors have acknowledged potential risks of volunteer tourism.

Volunteer tourism projects exist all over the world (Raymond and Hall, 2008). The small number of existing research with the focus on personal growth and motivations of volunteer tourists have been executed on volunteer tourists in for example Thailand, (Broad, 2003), Indonesia, (Galley and Clifton, 2004), South Africa (Stoddart and Rogerson, 2004), and Costa Rica (Campbell and Smith, 2006).

Possible positive effects of volunteer tourism all over the world include the work that the volunteers achieve, the personal growth that volunteers may undergo and foster a better understanding between cultures (intercultural experience) involving hosts and volunteers (Wearing, 2001, 2002; Ellis, 2003; Brown, 2005; McGehee and Santos, 2005; Wearing et al, 2008). Though, Raymond and Hall (2008) question the personal growth that volunteers supposedly experience and the value of the cross-cultural understanding. According to Callanan and Thomas (2005) in some projects, volunteers are  primarily interested in personal gain and the project benefits are questionable. Participants of volunteer tourism are often not motivated by altruism, but by personal reasons (Wearing, 2001; Galley and Clifton 2004; Brown, 2005). This is emphasized by that volunteers often seem to participate for less than one month. By this it seems that they are not really committed to achieve the goal of a project (Ellis, 2003; Callanan and Thomas, 2005; Fitzpatrick, 2007).

Thus, most volunteer tourists work a short time at a project and because of this they do not see the project fulfill. The outcome of a research by Ver Beek (2006) stated that in the two years following the volunteer trip only 25% of the participants had sent any direct donations to the agency. A project staff member surveyed by Coghlan (2008, p. 187) states: “The (volunteers) commitment is hard to gauge, as many were committed while on site but have shown little long-term interest since returning home.” This outcome emphasizes the judgment of Wearing (2001), Galley and Clifton (2004), and Brown (2005) that often volunteer workers volunteer for personal gain. So 75% of the participants of the research by Ver Beek (2006) were not really committed and engaged with the project.

Some authors question if benefits can be provided when volunteer tourists don’t have the necessary skills, are not familiar with the local culture and only will stay for a short period of time. Volunteer tourists may not only impede work progress at a project, even worse, they in fact may perform unsatisfactory work. At the end, it could even cost the project money to work with volunteer workers (Simpson, 2004; Callanan and Thomas, 2005).

Non-profit organizations still constitute the majority of the shares of the volunteer tourism sector. So, most volunteer workers will be assigned to a project by a non-profit organization. However, the commercial segment of large tourism operators are competing for a share in this market (Lyon and Wearing, 2008a, 2008b; Tourism Research and Marketing, 2008). These conditions are developing into a competition of shares, with the risk that volunteer tourism will be hugely commercialized.

Wearing (2001) states that if the volunteer tourism sector becomes too commercialized, it could end up endangering associated communities and environments. Resulting into a high risk of communities supposedly benefitting from volunteer tourism will be neglected (Guttentag, 2009). According to Fitzpatrick (2007) “The (volunteer tourism) market is increasingly geared toward profit rather than the needs of the communities.”

In this way the needs of the communities are neglected. One of the needs of local citizens is paid labor. To protect paid workers Pearce (1980) produced a list of criteria to identify jobs that were appropriate for volunteer workers. The first and most important requirement mentioned in the list was that the jobs of volunteers “do not fall within the domain of paid workers (Pearce, 1980, p. 448).” However, Pearce was talking from the perspective of non-tourist volunteers working in the tourism sector, like local volunteers. Nevertheless, in the opinion of Guttentag (2009) this requirement could easily  be applied at the volunteer tourism sector. Most volunteer projects are based on unskilled labor. As a result volunteer tourists often perform jobs that locals citizens could perform, too. However, the problem is that in general volunteers naturally work for free. More often volunteer workers even pay for the opportunity to perform volunteer work. In this way volunteer tourists may undercut competing local laborers (Guttentag, 2009; Raymond and Hall, 2008). This kind of environment ensures that it is more attractive for project managers to employ volunteer workers who work for free and sometimes even pay to be able to do volunteer work, than to employ paid workers.

In the beginning of this article a few countries have been mentioned where research has been conducted with the focus on personal growth and motivations of the volunteer tourists.  The unemployment rates of these countries have been displayed in this paragraph.

During the last few years the unemployment rate in Thailand has been decreasing.  Only 1% of the Thai population is unemployed. In Indonesia the unemployment rate has been fluctuating for the last 10 years. In 2010, 7,1% of the Indonesian population was unemployed.  Costa Rica’s unemployment rate was low in 2007 (4,6%) and 2008 (4,9%). After 2008, due to the global financial crisis, the unemployment rate increased rapidly to 7,3%. However, due to the global financial crisis the unemployment rate in South Africa is extremely high, namely 24% of the South African population is unemployed. Youth unemployment in South Africa is even the worst, effected with 50% (2010 figures) (Asian Development Bank, 2010; Selassie, 2011; Index Mundi, 2010).

In my opinion sending organizations could be more strict about the minimal time frame that a volunteer  stays  working at a project. As mentioned above, the time frame that a volunteer worker is now working at a project is often a maximum of one month. So, at the moment  the volunteers are directly gone after the exposure time. Hence,  to improve the result of the work of the volunteer worker, a minimum stay of two months could be introduced. Furthermore, (additional) strict criteria could be set up which volunteer workers have to fulfill in order to increase the long-term commitment of a volunteer worker to a project and the local community. In this way, the 25% of long-term commitment in the two years following the volunteer trip  could be increased.

Questionable is, if the volunteer tourism sector has not been commercialized already? Large tour operators who offer volunteer tourism to their clients and  due to volunteer projects make a profit. In my opinion, they are profiting  from money that should go to the volunteer project itself. As a result, volunteer  tourism has been commercialized already by allowing companies to make a profit out of it. Indeed, volunteer tourism endangers associated communities and environments. If nothing changes, volunteer tourists will probably lean more to the tourist side, than the volunteer side and by this it is questionable if local communities will be able to preserve their culture.

Finally, according to McGehee and Santos (2005, p. 760) volunteer tourism is “utilizing discretionary time and income to travel out of the sphere of regular activity to assist other in need. ” However, sending organizations do not always research the needs of local citizens. One of the first questions in a project should be: Is the local community in need?

In my opinion volunteer workers should have the skills and knowledge to perform the work in the best possible way. The local citizens  should be educated by the volunteer workers in order to carry out the work that is now performed by volunteer workers. In this way, volunteer workers really help the local community and as a side effect the unemployment rate of a country can slowly decline. Of course, large tour operators that work and invest in the volunteer tourism sector will be against this. As this opportunity will cost them customers and more important it will cost them profit. This will not solve the unemployment rate for example in South Africa, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

As there is not enough data about the impacts of volunteer tourism on employment rates, this needs to be further researched.

References:

Asian Development Bank (2010a).Country Tables. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from https://sdbs.adb.org/sdbs/index.jsp

Broad, S. (2003). Living the Thai Life – a case study of volunteer tourism at the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, Thailand. Tourism Recreation Research 28(3): 63-72.

Brown, S. (2005). Travelling with a purpose: understanding the motives and benefits of volunteer vacationers. Current Issues in Tourism 8(6): 479-496.

Brown, S. & Morrison, A. (2003). Expanding volunteer vacation participation: an exploratory study on the mini-mission concept. Tourism Recreation Research 28(3): 73-82.

Callanan, M., & Thomas, S. (2005).  Volunteer tourism: deconstructing volunteer activities within a dynamic environment. Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issues and Trends, Novelli, M. (ed.). New York: Elsevier; 183-200.

Campbell, L. & Smith, C. (2006). What makes them pay? Values of volunteer tourists working for sea turtle conservation. Environmental Management 38(1): 84-98.

Clifton, J. & Benson, A. (2006). Planning for sustainable ecotourism: the case for research ecotourism in developing country destinations. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 14(3): 238-254.

Coghlan, A. (2008). Exploring the role of expedition staff in volunteer tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research 10: 183-191.

Ellis, C. (2003). Participatory environmental research in tourism: a global view. Tourism Recreation Research 28(3): 45-55.

Fitzpatrick, L. (2007, July 26). Vacationing like Brangelina. Time. Retrieved November 18, 2011 from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1647457,00.html

Galley, G. & Clifton, J. (2004). The motivational and demographic characteristics of research ecotourists: Operation Wallacea volunteers in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Journal of Ecotourism 3(1): 69-82.

Guttentag, D. (2009). The Possible Negative Impacts of Volunteer Tourism. International Journal of Tourism Research 11: 537-551.

Index Mundi (2010). Unemployment Rate Costa Rica. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=cs&v=74

Lyon, K. & Wearing, S. (2008a). All for a good cause? The blurred boundaries of volunteering and tourism. Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism, Lyon, K. Wearing, S. (eds). Cambridge: CABI Publishing: 86-100.

Lyon, K. & Wearing, S. (2008b). Volunteer tourism as alternative tourism: journeys beyond otherness. Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism, Lyon, K. Wearing, S. (eds). Cambridge: CABI Publishing: 3-11.

Matthews, A. (2008). Negotiated selves: exploring the impact of local-global interactions on young volunteer travelers.  Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism, Lyon, K. and Wearing, S. (eds). Cambridge: CABI Publishing; 101-117.

McGehee, N., & Santos, C. (2005). Social change, discourse, and volunteer tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(3): 760-779.

McIntosh, A. and Zahra, A. (2008). Journeys for experience:  The experiences of volunteer tourists in an indigenous community in a developed nation – a case study of New Zealand.  Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism, Lyon, K. & Wearing, S. (eds). Cambridge: CABI Publishing.

Pearce, J. (1980). A volunteer worker placement model for business. Annals of Tourism Research 2(3): 443-454.

Raymond, E. & Hall, C. (2008). The development of cross-cultural (mis)understanding through volunteer tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 16(5): 530-543.

Selassie, A. (2011, April 4). South Africa’s Unemployment. Blog IMF Direct. Retrieved November 20, 2011 from http://blog-imfdirect.imf.org/2011/04/04/south-african-unemployment/

Simpson, K. (2004). ‘Doing Development’: the gap year: volunteer-tourists and a popular practice of development. Journal of International Development 16: 681-692.

Stoddart, H. & Rogerson, C. (2004). Volunteer tourism: the case of Habitat for Humanity South Africa. GeoJournal 60: 311-318.

Tourism Research and Marketing (2008). Volunteer Tourism: A Global Analysis. Barcelona: Atlas.

Ver Beek, K. (2006). The impact of short-term missions: a case study of house construction in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. Missiology: An International Review 34(4): 477-496.

Wearing, S. (2001). Volunteer tourism: Experiences that make a difference. New York: CABI Publishing.

Wearing, S. (2002). Re-centering the self in volunteer tourism. The Tourist as a Methaphor of the Social World, Dann. G. (ed.) New York: Cabi Publishing; 237-262.

Wearing, S., Deville, A. & Lyons, K. (2008). The volunteer’s journey through leisure into the self. Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism, Lyon, K & Wearing, S. (eds). Cambridge: CABI Publishing; 195-209.