TR TOURIS
RESEARCH A D MARKER G
VOLUNTEER TOURISM: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS
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TR TOURIS
RESEARCH A D MARKER G
VOLUNTEER TOURISM: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS
A, ^, Patio" to, Ton, ri$111 and Last. re Educat, on
UruVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA Up. ARY
January 2008 A report by Tourism Research and Marketing Martinez de Ia Rosa 40 (Pre1,2'), 08012 Barcelona, Spain Tel: (0034) 932,74826 Email: greg@train-research. coin WWW. train-research. coin
VOLUNTEER TOURISM :
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM: A GLOBAL ANALYSIS
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Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I.
INTRODUCTION
2.
WHAT Is VOLUNTEER TOURISM?
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2.1. What is meant by 'volunteer'? 2.2.
Defining and measuring civic service
2.3. Types of Volunteer Projects 2.4. Profit or non-profit 2.5. Fund raising 2.6. Costs 2.7.
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Government funding of projects
3.
WHO ARE THE ORGANISATIONS AND COMPANIES INVOLVED?
4.
FACTORS STIMULATING THE GROWTH OF VOLUNTEER TOURISM 4.1. Volunteer Motivation and Commitment
5.
ETHICAL ISSUES IN VOLUNTEER TOURISM 5. ,.
Impact of volunteer tourism on local people
.
6.
VOLUME AND VALUE OF VOLUNTEER TOURISM
6.1. Estimated volume of volunteer activity 6.2. Estimated market value 6.3. Charitable contributions
6.4. Government and government agency involvement 7.
VOLUNTEER TOURISM MARKETS AND DESTINATIONS 7.1. Volunteer markets 7.2. Volunteer destinations
7.3. Volunteer Tourism - a global demand profile 7.4. Volunteer tourism and Tourism Boards
7.5 . Responding to crises 8.
VOLUNTEER TOURISM ON THE WEB
8.1. " Getting information
8.2. Voluntary Service supporting organisations 8.3. Volunteer Tourism Research 9.
THE FUTURE OF VOLUNTEER TOURISM
10.
CONCLUSIONS
11.
APPENDIX LIST OF ORGANISATIONS
*
11.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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This report provides a first global overview of the rapidly growing volunteer tourism
market, and analyses the motivations, behaviour and travel patterns of volunteers and the activities of the organisations providing volunteer travel experiences. ,
,
Part of the recent growth in volunteer travel can be related to the diversification of
volunteer experiences, which make a definition of this market more difficult. Although most volunteer tourism involves a combination of travel and voluntary work, new forms of experience are emerging which involve a combination of work and leisure, or making donations instead of working.
This increasing demand for volunteer experiences is being met by a growing number of volunteer service organisations, most of whom have their headquarters in the developed world. Over half of the organisations we identified are non-profit, but the number of commercial providers is rising rapidly. Their activities have a considerable
impact on the countries served, not only in terms of the fees paid directly to them by participants, but also because the volunteer travellers spend much larger sums of money funding their total travel plans - an average of over $3000 a trip in 2007. Based on our survey of over 300 volunteer tourism organisations worldwide, we estimate that overall the market has grown to a total of 1.6 million volunteer tourists a
year, with a value of between ;:832m and E, .3bn ($1.7bn - $2.6bn). The most substantial growth in the sector has taken place since 1990. A survey of over 8500 young travellers in 2007 indicates that volunteers are more likely to be women than men, and 70% were aged between 20 and 25. The
frequency of volunteer motivations among young people grew slightly between 2002 and 2007, in line with trends in volunteering in general. Motivations for travel tend to
be a mixture of volunteering, exploring other cultures and work and study abroad. There also seems to be a significant element of 'unorganised' volunteer tourism, with many young people finding volunteer placements once they arrive at their destination rather than being placed or sent by a volunteer service organization.
The main destinations for volunteers are Latin America, Asia and Africa. Together these regions account for almost 90% of the locations offered by volunteer service organisations. This underlines the close link between levels of development and volunteering, with most flows of volunteers being from relatively rich to relatively poor regions, .
National Tourist Offices have slowly begun to realise that there is a 'high spending' tourist market that is attracted to volunteering, and they are beginning to introduce
volunteering opportunities on their websites. There has also been a significant growth in the number of commercial organisations catering to the volunteer market, and these are beginning to compete with the traditional non"profit volunteer service organisations There are also emerging ethical concerns about the benefits of volunteer travel, with
some groups suggesting that it can do more harm than good. This especially concerns the way in which the volunteer work can be misdirected and organised more for the benefit of the untrained traveller than the recipients of their efforts
One of the proposed solutions to this problem is to recruit more experienced and highly skilled volunteers who will have more to offer their hosts. This trend matches
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
the growth in career gaps and sabbaticals among older volunteers, which is slowly giving the volunteer tourism market a more senior age profile. The growth in volunteer tourism has also produced a PIethora of analyses, websites
and industry events, which are slowly adding to our body of knowledge about this important social phenomenon.
Tourism Research & Marketing
VOLUNTEER TOURISM
I.
INTRODUCTION
About this report *
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This report provides the first comprehensive overview of the global volunteer tourism market, This dynamic tourism sector is growing rapidly in response to increased
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demand for volunteer experiences from people of all ages, and is spreading to a
I
growing range of destinations around the world.
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It has been claimed that volunteer tourism provides mutual benefits for the volunteers and the destinations they travel to.
Potentially, volunteer tourism can help bring funding and enthusiastic labour as well as new ideas and skills to important projects around the world. It can also
lead to improved cross-cultural understanding, mutual learning and increased awareness of social and environmental issues. At the same time, volunteer ,
tourists are often given the opportunity to gain valuable skills, develop their sense of self and even boost their cultural and corporate capital. (Raymond, 2007)
*
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Perhaps even more important!y from the point of view of the destination, volunteer tourists can also generate considerable income for local communities. Volunteer tourists not only contribute their time and skills, but also make donations in cash or in kind, and will often spend time travelling around as well. It is not surprising, therefore,
that many destinations are starting to view volunteer tourism as an interesting market niche to develop. ,
At the same time, both non-profit volunteer organisations and commercial companies
are beginning to capitalise on the willingness of millions of people to give time and money to help others' There has been a veritable explosion in the number of volunteer experience providers in recent years, and these experiences are becoming global Iy accessible over the Internet.
This report analyses the development of volunteer tourism, the factors driving supply and demand, the motivations of volunteer tourists, the destinations being developed,
the profile of today's volunteer tourist and the volunteer experience providers. A listing of over 300 volunteer service organisations and volunteer tourism providers is included at the end of the report. This report also provides estimates of the volume and value of the global volunteer tourism market. We also examine some of the issues thrown up by the growth of volunteer tourism,
including ethical considerations and the changing demands placed on volunteers. At the end of this report, we consider the future of volunteer tourism, and the directions in which it may develop. The development of volunteer tourism 'Volunteer tourists' have been around for centuries, originally sent by religious and t
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medical organisations that wished to offer medical, educational and spiritual help abroad.
This practice became more organised in the early I 900s with the formation of organizations such as Australian Volunteers Abroad and the United States Peace Corps. The aftermath of the Second World War also stimulated a growth in volunteer organisations, which began to appear in significant numbers in the 1950's, some with
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Governmental support. Africa in particular was one of the prime targets o vo un ary organisations.
Cousins (2007) notes that 'The first international conservation holidays from the ^K became available in the inid-, 980s, and since this time there has been a fair y
constant positive growth in the number of organisations offering interna iona
4 * *'
conservation volunteering opportunities.
During the I 990's there was a veritable explosion of new organisations orme y those who had 'enjoyed' an experience working overseas and wished to urn eir
experience into a personal life-enhancing challenge. Most of these organisa ions
were founded in the United States as non-profit organisations dependent on
donations together with income from the recruited volunteers. By the en o e 1990s it was reported that the number of volunteer tourists had reached 500,
,
: *
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(Rand0 2004).
* *
The early years of the 21' century have seen a continued grovvih in vo un eer organisations and numbers of volunteers. More local NGOs have sprung up to crea e
projects and volunteer opportunities in developing countries, and more coinmercia
companies have begun to provide volunteer experiences alongside the re i iona non-profit organisations.
Over the past century, volunteer tourism has changed considerably, rom eing
*
orientated towards providing development aid towards the provision of experiences which are supposedly beneficial to both host and volunteer. In the past volunteering was almost exclusively the preserve of the young, whereas today the recruitmen o
* * \
professional people, older people and retirees has grown extensively. Equally, it may once have been true that 'volunteering usually takes p ace in developing nations" (Zahra and MCIntosh 2006:3), these days volunteer projects ale
found all over the world. One of the reasons for this is the tremendous gro^rt in
volunteer organisations, many of which have been set up by people returning rom their own volunteer experiences.
New segments of 'volunteer tourism' have also emerged as the market has grown,
such as the explosive growth of language schools. In Latin America, for examp e,
many Us volunteers often take the opportunity to learn Spanish and/or teach Eng is
through these organisations.
As a consequence of its recent emergence in the tourism industry, there has een
relatively little scholarly research devoted to the concept of volunteer tourism (Brqad 2003: Wearing 2003). In addition, this research is usually focused on developing nations or the benefits of the tourist e>:penence for the individual. There is a ac o
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documented examples and analysis of volunteer tourism in develope coun Ties. (Rand0,2004) As MCBride at a1, (2006) note:
International voluntary service (IVS) has a significant and growing presence worldwide. IVS is a policy and program tool used for international development
aid, humanitarian relief, and promotion of international understanding. n t e last century, forms of IVS have proliferated, while research on scope,
*'
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effectiveness, and impacts has lagged behind.
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Growing interest in the field of volunteer tourism is evidenced by the launch of an international journal dedicated to the field, as well as increased media coverage of the potential negative impacts of volunteer tourism. I. WHAT Is VOLUNTEER TOURISM? *
The most widely cited definition of volunteer tourism comes from Wearing's (2001 :, ) study: those tourists who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty
of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research
,
into aspects of society or environment.
*
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As Raymond (2007) points out, although this definition is widely used, it provides only a very general understanding of the concept, and the question of what can and cannot be classified as volunteer tourism remains unclear. It is riot clear, for example,
whether volunteer experience is the main purpose of travel, or a component of a wider leisure trip or working holiday. The level of organisation is also unclear,
because volunteering can be organised by tour operators and other 'sending organisations, or by local NGOs, and the experience may immerse the volunteer in the local community, or it may involve simply turning up and donating some form of
t
aid. ,
Rand0 (2004: 7) notes that volunteer tourism basically involves travel 'not only for the purpose of a travel experience but also to make a valuable contribution to the host region in the form of volunteering. ' But in order to understand the concept of volunteer tourism one also has to understand the concept of volunteering. t t
2. I.
What is meant by 'volunteer'?
The following is the definition used by the Association of Voluntary Service Organisations (AVSO):
Voluntary service is an activity aimed at working for the common good. The volunteer takes part at home or abroad, in a continuous, full-time activity, following a free and informed personal decision. ,
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He/She engages himself/herself in a personal social and/or an intercultural learning process by participating in activities proposing solutions for new needs or creating new approaches to already recognised problems, part of the process of a changing society. The volunteer is active on the basis of a volunteer agreement for an unpaid
activity for a limited time, generally between 6 and I8 months. I^
The fields of action include social
serving handicapped, elderly or
marginalized people cultural work, development of anti-racism projects, reconciliation, education, environment protection, 'grass roots' initiatives etc. * ,
:
Volunteers participate in the on-going processes of political and social change. They are learning by doing in the social or non-governmental sector.
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voL UNTEER To uRisM
Volunteers and their organisations participate in local projects which promote intercultural and social learning. The volunteers engage themselves on the basis of a personal decision concerning their own development and commitment to the volunteer philosophy. Volunteers shall not be used as 'cheap labour' but rather as add value to the hosting projects and local communities.
The simple way of approaching volunteer tourism is to assume that it is a combination of volunteering and travel. This is the approach taken by Vo!untourism: 'the idea of combining voluntary service with travel is not a new concept. In fact, it can be traced back for many thousands of years in various cultures and religious orders throughout the world. Missionaries, healers and/or medical practitioners, sailors, explorers, and countless others have rendered service in conjunction with their travels. '
But this may be an oversimplification, because many of the 'volunteers' involved in programmes abroad act in a different way to volunteers at home or the missionaries of the past, It is clear from the AVSO outline for example, that most volunteers spend longer on projects at home than they would tend to abroad. It is also not clear whether volunteer tourists fully buy into the philosophy of volunteering, or if many
tourists are looking for very specific benefits from their time in a project, such as training in specific skills, or learning a language. For example, some projects are based not so much on voluntary 'work' by the
participants, but on the giving of donations. Relief Riders International offer 'Give the Gift of Sight' tours, in which the tour participants riding on horseback participate in a medical and educational relief mission along the way. Funds received from trip fees are used to purchase medical and school supplies and hire doctors who serve
villagers at each camp. This would suggest there is little practical participation from the tour participants other than providing resources. While this may fit within Wearing's definition of volunteer tourism as 'alleviating material poverty', it would fit less well with AVSO's idea of volunteering, It also has to be considered if the volunteers believe themselves to be tourists.
Wearing's (2001) research suggests that volunteer tourists may not wish to be associated with the term 'tourist' as they consider themselves to be more cultural Iy and environmentally aware. The current study provides some empirical evidence to
support this assertion, since 'volunteers' are twice as likely as other tourists to reject the traditional tourist labels (see Part 7). Callanan and Thomas (2005) also suggest that the volunteer tourists and the projects themselves can be separated into three categories: 'shallow', 'intermediate', or
'deep'. They suggest that project duration, volunteer skills, altruism and host community benefits increase as you progress from one end of the spectrum to the other.
(Raymond 2007) argues that if volunteer tourism is to be considered a distinct form of volunteering and a unique form of tourism, then it is necessary to establish what differentiates it from these two activities. First, volunteer tourism can be separated from other forms of volunteering due to the travel component involved (and for the
purposes of this study that such travel should be to another region or country). Moreover, whereas volunteering in general is associated with minimal remuneration,
volunteer tourists often have to pay for their volunteering experience. In fact, short
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
term volunteer tourists often pay more than an average tourist would pay for a standard holiday in a similar location (Wearing 2001 )
Second, the key concept that differentiates volunteer tourism from other forms of tourism, lies in the ideal that volunteer tourists seek experiences that are mutually beneficial and will therefore 'elevate both the giver and the receiver' (Wearing 2003). Volunteer tourists can thus be defined as: travellers who vacation to volunteer in an
organised, responsible way to learn new skills or improve existing ones, while at the same time restoring or researching certain aspects of the environment: all the while aiding some groups of society' (Rowe and Hall2003). This definition brings volunteer tourism very close to the concept of 'creative tourism' (Richards and Wilson 2006), except that creative tourism tends to focus more clearly on the personal development benefits to the tourist. But as Zahara and MCIntosh show in the case of New Zealand,
volunteer tourism and creative tourism can coincide very closely (see section 4.1). 2.2.
Defining and measuring civic service
In some quarters 'volunteering' is considered to be a form of civic service. MCBride at a1. (2006) attempt to provide a definition for the purposes of measurement: *
Discussion of service evokes consideration of who is and is not a volunteer.
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The debate usually turns on the issues of stipends and compulsion. Some
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scholars have argued that compensated or required service is not volunteerism.
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Hence, we use the term 'service' instead of volunteering. Across types of civic
service programmes, the individual performs an action that is presumably of benefit to some group or cause; the action is performed in the spirit of improving living conditions or general welfare. They further argue that civic service may involve both compensation and compulsion: for example a payment to cover basic living expenses, or service required for the award of educational credit. What distinguishes civic service from sporadic
volunteering (which might include some volunteer travel) is the intensity of commitment: Civic service can be defined as 'an organised period of substantial
engagement and contribution to the local, national, or world community, recognised and valued by society, with minimal monetary compensation to the participant. ' (SheTraden 2001: 2). This engagement is usually organized through a specific programme of service, for which: Incentives may also be provided for participation, including development of
skills or receipt* of educational credit, for example. Service is distinguish able from employmeht, because any monetary award for service is not equivalent to market wages. Civic service roles may also be compensated by such benefits as stipends, awards, and educational scholarships. The service institution may provide information and facilitation or support via training, supervision, reflection sessions, and mentoring. There may be other important forms of incentives or compensation for service, such as personal satisfaction and social connections.
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MOBride at a/. (2006) found that 81% of civic service programmes require servers to commit to the service experience on a full-time basis, which is equivalent to about 40 hours per week. This is more prevalent among international programmes (91 %) Across the sample, the average amount of time that a participant serves is 7.3
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
2.3
Types of Volunteer Projects
For the purposes of this study, nothing has been included that involves the recruitment of local people to become involved in national or regional endeavours. Volunteer tourism is not restricted to undertaking work in developing nations; it also
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covers opportunities that are available in developed countries. * *
The domestic markets appear to be dominated by conservation volunteering
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organisations, some of them receiving local or national government support. In the Us many public sector tourism enterprises and information services are staffed by
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volunteers drawn from the local and mostly retired population.
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The longer distance markets are organised by a wide range of commercial tour
operators and not for profit organisations, some of which receive subsidies in one form or another from national governments or charitable trusts.
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David Clemmons, founder of the website voluntourism. coin estimates that there are some I 0,000 voluntourism projects underway worldwide at the present time - from hard-core building programmes such as Habitat for Humanity, to animal conservation
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projects, and a growing number of 'cross-generation al experiences that allow whole families to travel to often remote places to help out needy communities. This process he claims is 'transformational tourism'
The following listing is not comprehensive but gives a flavour of the varied destinations and tasks that can be enjoyed on the programmes offered by organisers:
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Australia - construction of multi-purpose community park
..
Brazil - Atlantic Amazon research on red breasted toucans/vocational centre for street children
Bolivia - researching giant otters Burkino Faso - education and village development
Garnero0n - computer school/woodwork/nursery/music/drama Costa Rica - mapping ecology Dominican Republic - child education Ghana - construction of community school/Tenovating medical facility Hawaii - marine research
Iceland - surveying nature reserve Indonesia - earthquake response
Kenya - street children education Kyrgyztan - snow leopards and rare birds rescue Malaysia - conservation work in Borneo Mindanao - natural resources management
Mongolia - restoring Buddhist temples Morocco - remedial lessons for the young Namibia - captive breeding programme
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Nicaragua - safe water conservation
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Poland -conservation of coincrakes
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Portugal - Iberian wolves recovery Russia - brown bears rescue/internet for the elderly Spain - greyhound rescue
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Tanzania - providing village health and education
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Thailand - elephant rescue
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Thailand - sea turtle conservation Ukraine - dance ensemble
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USA Florida - wildlife rescue
Tourism Research & Marketing
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Volunteering organisations working on the spot range from the individual enterprise with a website to substantial NGO or Ministry backed administrations organising meeting, greeting, and training and familiarisations services.
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An example of an extremely small hosting organisation is Quinta das Abelhas, a husband and wife run organic farm enterprise in Portugal. This is a 2 hectare organic smallholding situated in the Beiras region of central Portugal. The farm offers cheap and cheerful camping on the uncultivated lower terraces of the farm and welcomes volunteers on working holidays (free camping and meals in return for your work).
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Nomenclature
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Any programme that regularly sends groups or individuals to work abroad as volunteers, interns or lay missionaries, for any length of time, falls under the broad category of International Volunteer Programmes. However, there are many different types of programmes and many ways of classifying them. For example, one can classify programmes according to their organisation, their
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tourism orientation or the activities involved.
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Organisation
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Volunteer experiences may be organised in a number of different ways, including:
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International internship programmes. Development agencies, Cultural eXchange organizations. Workcamp programs. Technical and professional aid groups. High schools and universities. Religious institutions. Commercial tour operators Language schools
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Tourism orientation
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Volunteer programmes can have a range of different relationships to tourism, and can cover a range of different forms of travel experiences, including:
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Adventure Tourism
Charity Tourism Creative Tourism
Coinmunitarian Tourism
Corporate Volunteering & Team Building Tourism (Business Groups) ECo-Tourism ,
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Gap-Year Tourism
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Language LearningITeaching Tourism
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Travellers Introductory Networks (Servas)
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This illustrates the range of tourism products which can be involved in volunteer tourism, some of which may require some introduction.
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Gap years, for example, are defined in Jones' (2004) report as 'any period of time
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between 3 and 24 months which an individual takes "out" of formal education,
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training or the workplace, and where the time out sits in the context of a longer career trajectory'. These breaks from education or work are increasingly common in the UK,
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Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, are also being taken up in re ,
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and Scandinavia, and are becoming increasingly important as a source
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Jones estimated that there are between 200,000 and 250,000 gap years a
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education in the UK each year.
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Corporate and Team Building Tourism, which may also be known as omjnunity Challenge, is a combination of team-building with philanthropy, a so . I equity', a movement which got undeiway as a result of the Asi^n sunam'. '. .
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2004. It enables companies to express their corporate an SOCia resp ' ' ' y ' tangible ways
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Corporate Volunteering involves businesses supporting an en g g
staff
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involvement in the community. (Quirk 1998)
It is all about employees undertaking voluntary roles wit in non-p
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community groups with the endorsement and assistance o t eir emp y
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the purposes of this report, the term Employee Volunteering is interchangeably with Corporate Volunteering. In the UK, t e generic Employee Community Involvement. While this term may be mole tec nica y
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correct, the term Corporate Volunteering or Employee Volun eering se convey the most meaning for people new to the concept,
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Employee Volunteering programmes can take a variety of forms as summarised in
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Table I: Cor orete volunteerin How BUSINESSES SUPPORT EMPLOYEES WHO VOLUNTEER Making More Attractive . culture that values volunteering
INVOLVED
. flexi-time
, development assignments
. awards schemes ("dollars for doers")
Making More Accessible . presenting opportunities . in-house brokerage . skills bank a the Volunteer Centre
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VOLUNTEER FOR
, * ,
ridividual Activities
. self-selected volunteering
. recognition . matched fundraising
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How EMFL
, nine off
o legitimate use of company facilities
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. transitional secondments
, board placements . meritorlng Team Activities
. challenges o staff Committees
Non-profit Groups Selected By . employees individually or by committee
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o company sponsorship partners or Community
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Investment Areas
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. community need . a broker sourcing and presenting relevant opportunities.
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Company Wide Activities , community partnerships . cause-related partnerships
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. opening doors to community groups . packaging opportunities
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. facilitating team forrnalion . involvement in distrlbuting donations bud at
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Source: Quirk (I 998)
14 '*
For example, the Financial Times reports (, I December 2007) that IBM is abqut to launch a 'Corporate Service Corps' to send employees to wor on pro developing world such as income generation and access to e uca ion. of between 6 and 10 people will be placed with non-governmen a orga. ni , charities and non-profits in markets where IBM does business, inc u ing in a, ,
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Brazil, Russia, South Africa and Chile. It is being described as 'a corporate version of the Peace Corps. ' J
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Participants might work on anything from developing technology for an NGO in a higher education system in Latin America to applying information technology to a government transportation project in Tanzania. During the next three years about 600 employees drawn from across IBM's global offices will participate in the programme. They will each spend a month working with the organisation to which they have been assigned. The Traveller Introduction Network Sen/as Hosts was founded in I 949, and is an
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international, non-governmental, inter racial peace association run in over 100 countries by volunteers. These volunteers open their doors to travellers of every race, creed and nationality. A host should provide a bed for two nights (or longer, but only at the host's invitation) and usually invite the traveller to share in the evening meal.
The host is not expected to provide transport for the traveller, although some may
want to show the traveller places of interest. The traveller should present the Letter of Introduction on arrival, and the host should keep a record of travellers' names and addresses in a Visitor Book.
Whilst this form of tourism is not strictly volunteer tourism, more a volunteer host ,
format, it may have some importance in sustaining a 'freelance' movement of volunteers and gap year travellers.
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Table 2. ' Product cluster rou s and their sub-activities Name of Cluster Grou
Sub-activi
Environmental regeneration
Conservation work, Wildlife, Plants Gardenin and landsca in
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Environmental research and education
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interpretation trails, Land mapping for zoriing Animal and plant research Learnin about lookin after the environment
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Environment protection
Preservation and Land care, Ranger work Wildlife monitorin and rehabilitation care
Community welfare
Cultural developments
Elderly, Children, Youth Work Social services, Refugees Legal assistance, Counselling Non-violent conflict, Peace actions Empowerment of women Cultural work eXchange programme Indigenous programmes Arts ro rainmes
Teaching
Teaching a foreign language In-class instruction Vocational trainin ' Indi enous issues
Business developments
Farming business (organic, sustainable) IT/finance projects Local businesses
Building projects
Constructing new buildings Renovatin buildin s, Architecture
Medical
Hospital/doctors practice, Aids patients Health jin rovement assistance
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Journalism
Local
ress, Lan ua e/communication
Derived from Callanan and Thomas (2005)
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VOL UNTEER To uRISM , * * \
2.3. I Product cluster groups and their sub-activities.
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Table 2 sets out a listing of key volunteer activities, breaking down the common types
*
of work they are involved in.
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There is little previous research which indicates the relative importance of these
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different sectors. However, in the UK, Jones (2004) provided some estimates of the main areas of volunteer placements offered by overseas volunteer organisations:
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Table 3: Volunteer service sectors
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Work with Children
2, %
Practical Projects Conservation/environment
12% 17% 45% 5%
Social work Other
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Our analysis of the programmes offered by the 300 + organisations that are listed in
.. .* ^
Appendix I indicate that community work is the most important category of activities, followed by educational and eco-conservation projects.
An analysis was made of the types of work offered by voluntary tourism organisations in order to identify the 'popularity' of certain types of work. Many organisations offer several of the categories listed.
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Figure I: Analysis of types of programmes offered by 300 organisations Community Work
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Tourism Research & Marketing
46
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
In spite of the frequent link made between volunteering and conservation in the literature (e. g. Cousins, 2007), it seems that the actual range of projects undertaken by volunteer organisations is much broader. 2.3.2 Organisation of work activities Volunteer projects can last from a few days to one year or longer. Although the UNVl!To definition of 'tourist' limits stays to under one year, the nature of volunteer
tourism suggests that a longer stay which involves a mix of volunteer 'work together with travelling experience justifies the lengthening of the qualification as 'tourist' in this case. For the purposes of this study, and based on the AVSO definition of 'volunteer' any travel period of over eighteen months would disqualify the participant as a 'volunteer tourist'. , ,
This means for example that the Us Peace Corps, whilst listed, has not been included in the data used in this study as Peace Corps volunteers are required to make a 27 month commitment and the programme is only open to Us citizens' *
Volunteer work offers fall broadly into three categories:
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a) b) c)
,
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Short-Term Placements
Long-Term Placements Paid Supervisor Positions
a) Short-Term Placements
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Short-term volunteering is considered to be up to three months, whilst long term volunteering can be more than one year. Cost
Shorter volunteer opportunities generally require the volunteer to pay a minimal fee
to participate (see section 2.6). It is a major misconception among prospective volunteers that this fee is a form of profit. In fact, in most cases the fees are returned to the volunteer in the form of room and board, project costs and materials, and local
transportation. Some organizations also provide a weekly stipend for volunteers, and some costs may also be tax deductible. Immediacy
.
*
In general, short term volunteering lends more to direct action projects. Direct action means these projects directly improve the community in an immediate manner. Some examples of direct action projects include construction of community buildings and temporary medical clinics. These projects can be started and completed by a volunteer team in the short amount of time available.
Most short-term volunteer programmes involve some manner of English teaching or construction. These types of programme do not require the volunteer to possess any *
special skills.
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The best types of short-term volunteers tend to be professionals and trained individuals. These volunteers can enter a region and through training sessions and
skill clinics, spread valuable services and/or knowledge through the local population.
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Tourism Research & Marketing
17
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
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Short-Term Placement Field Example: Remote Area Medical
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Remote Area Medical is a Us based organization which provides ree me ica
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to remote areas around the Americas. A typical volunteer project lasts only two o four days, however due to the high percentage of professional oc ors on
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volunteer team; a huge impact can be made.
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On a recent Remote Area Medical expedition:
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In a 21/2 day period from July 25th to July 27th, 988 RAM volunteers provide
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Dentists, using 50 dental chairs, extracted 2,681 bad teeth and filled I,
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free medical care in a total of 4,749 patients.
General medical doctors gave 2067 consultations which included extensive a
procedures, pharmacy and telemedicine. 93 women received Mainmograms. There were 1140 eye examinations and 814 people obtained free prescrip ion
eyeglasses, many of them made on site in the RAM mobile eyeglass lab.
The total value of free care delivered in 2 1/2 days was a staggering $653,309.00,
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Remote Area Medical (WWW. rainusa. org. )
.
by Long-Term Placements
,
In contrast to the intensive, high impact strategy of short-term placements, orig- erm
placements tend to concentrate on making a deeper impact on the target community.
Because of the longer time commitment required, there are many free or even paying long-term volunteer opportunities available. The Us Peace Corp is one SUG
opportunity and includes a monthly stipend and $1 2,000 after two years' It is Tare to
,
a
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find a long-term volunteer opportunity that does not provide some sort of stipend.
Long term volunteering generally offers many side benefits to the vo un eer o
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than financial, including deferment of loans, and alumni job placement. Culture/Language Benefits
,
integrate and
*
I think it was only after the first three months that I felt part of the community and knowledgeable enough to start effective projects that would make any so of lasting change - Chris Gillman, Peace Corps Volunteer 2000-2001
,
Long term volunteering allows the community and the volunteer to
create interaction on a level not available to short-term volunteers.
Over time volunteers can learn the language and the culture of their host coinmuni y and therefore can operate more independently. Long-term volunteers gain e
knowledge necessary to develop and run their own projects through coinmunica ing
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with the community and examining different problem and potential solutions.
Long Term volunteers are immersed in the local culture to a much larger ex en an
short-term volunteers. The overall experience is much more intimate, wi e volunteer becoming a member of the community, normally with a house o1 at. I^ast a room to himself/herself. Volunteers have time to learn the names of many in ivi ua s in the community and make friends among them. .
Tourism Research & Marketihg
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voL UNTEER To uRisM
Types of Projects With the extended length of time available, a volunteer can take the time and energy
to develop long term solutions for the community, including applying for and acquiring international grants for larger projects.
With less demand to create an immediate change, a long term volunteer is granted freedom from the structure of a typical short-term expedition. Projects can develop,
,
change, and be modified to better suit the situation without crippling any chance of the project being completed in time.
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I spent the first two months just getting to know my host village. I spent the next two months making a list of every complaint and problem of the villagers. Armed with this list, I had everyone in the village over for dinner and asked them to vote on the problem they wished me to solve. It was only the next morning (4 months into my 2 year trip) that I started to work. - Jason Tillinari, Peace Corps Volunteer.
Generally, short-term volunteers pay money to complete a specific predetermined project. They fly into the region in a group and work as a group. Short-term projects also tend to be much more structured than long term volunteer opportunities.
Long-term volunteers often get paid to volunteer. They generally do not have a specified project and have the freedom to make their own. There is very little (if any) structure for a long term volunteer.
c) Supervisory and Staff Positions The growing number of volunteer projects means there is also a greater need for supervision, particularly for short-term volunteers who have relatively little time to learn the ropes. This means that some of the larger volunteer organisations have a
need for large numbers of staff. For example, Conservation Volunteers Australia has more than I 70 full time employees, Paid supervisory and staff positions are therefore
available in many of the larger volunteer programmes. In many cases, these positions will be filled by older 'career gappers', or younger volunteers who already have considerable experience in the field. Short"term volunteers rarely complete an entire project during their short stay. ,
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Volunteer service organizations therefore need to manage the flow of volunteers to and from projects. This management allows those with limited time to hit the ground .
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Things are already set in motion and you pick up where the last team left off. Being part of one team in a series, part of a long-term commitment served by many teams, I realized that I was participating in something much bigger. It was perfect for me because I only get a few weeks' vacation a year - Jim Haus!er, a volunteer with Global Volunteers.
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The following guidelines are set out by Raleigh International for those seeking staff positions:
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Tourism Research & Marketing
19
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
Staff Roles & Training
Taking time out to broaden one's horizons is no longer only the domain of I8 year o gap year students' Career breakers and pre-retirement gappers are the fas est growing sectors looking for new and challenging opportunities away from their norma way of life. Whether you have been given a sabbatical from work, or wish to~ ta e time out from your career to consider your options, or your kids have finally left home an
suddenly you. have time to think about yourself, joining a Raleigh International programme as a volunteer staff member will provide you with an enriching experience and an opportunity of a lifetime. Who are we looking for? '
Field Based Staff; Project Based Staff; Staff roles; Training Benefits We take on staff from a wide variety of backgrounds with various skills, both
specialist and more general skills such as leadership, interpersonal and project
*
management.
Each Raleigh programme has between 35 and 50 staff who work with one of our 5
. *
professional Country Direttors and 90-, 30 young people, to ensure projects are
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carried~ out safely, successfully and to a high standard. The staff are volunteers who
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variety of cultures and backgrounds.
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enjoy working as part of a team as well as empowering young people from a wi e If you are aged 25+, enthusiastic and want to work with young people, benefit
*
communities around the. World and inspire others, please do not hesitate to enquire for more information or apply, Unless you have a 'hard' skill (eg. medic, interpreter, builder, administrator or outdoor instructor) you should have either 6-months
*
a
managerial experience and/or-some experience of working with young people between 47 and 24. .
'Participating in a Raleigh overseas programme is a' uniquely special experience. is
the classic task, group and individual management juggle. Definitely challenging,
never easy, always profoundly rewarding. ' Steve JoneS " Country Director
*
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2.4, Profit or non-profit
A large number of the organisations identified claim to be non-profit. In total, 56 fo of the organisations listed in Appendix I were non-profit. The proportion of non-pro It
organisations seems to have fallen slightly in recent years, For those organisations
formed since 1990, the average proportion of non-profit organisations has fallen to
about 45%. The proportion of non-profit organisations also varies by location. In the UK, for example, less than 40% of organisations were recognised as non-profit,
compared with over 50% in the USA. This may well have a lot to do with the Us tax regulations which allows tax deductions for donations to non-profit organisations. These figures point to the growing number of volunteer opportunities offered by trave agents, tour operators and other commercial companies. It is often unclear if t e travel arrangements made on behalf of volunteers are included in the non-profit definition. Some of the larger organisations set out a detailed chart of the way in
Tourism Research & Marketing
*
20
VOLUNTEER TOURISM .J
which the fees charged are distributed (See 2.6. for an example from Cross Cultural Solutions).
Cousins' (2007) study of UK-based conservation volunteer organisations reveals a similar pattern. Although the original organisations which dominated the conservation tourism industry in the past were all non-profit, now the range of organisations includes scientific research organisations such as CGC, Frontier, Earthwatch Institute, Operation Wallacea, Biosphere Expeditions and Blue Ventures. Forty-eight percent of the organisations studied are companies, however at least two were registered both as a charity and a company. As the Lonely Planet Guide to Volunteering comments: 'You can volunteer with a registered charity, a not-fopprofit organisation or a limited company. There is no difference in the actual volunteering experience, but registered charities are normally
regulated by national bodies and, from an ethical point of view, have an extra layer of accountability. Certain limited companies choose to operate like not-for-profit organisations, while some sending agencies are set up as limited companies to speed up decision-making. ' (Hindie at a1. , 2007). 2.5.
Fund raising
Many of the organisations offering volunteer tourism opportunities will encourage the volunteers to undertake a fund raising exercise, or to seek sponsorship. The larger
.
organisations offer advice on how this can be undertaken on their websites and in
.
.
their brochures.
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A study of volunteers at a project in Honduras by Chang at a1. (2005) indicated that the average volunteer project donated $4,944 to the local hosts in money or
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materials.
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ArtCorps takes the view that volunteers are offering their time for not less than 9 months, but volunteers are expected to do their own fund raising to cover incidental living expenses. On the other hand ArtCorps will provide travel expenses (up to $1,000), an allowance for art materials, and medical and evacuation insurance, and the host organisation is responsible for providing food and housing for the volunteer, ArtCorps also solicits corporate sponsors to sponsor artists.
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2.5. I . Corporate Sponsorship
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Corporate sponsorship is becoming an increasingly important source of income for volunteer organisations. For example, Conservation Volunteers Australia is mainly funded by corporate sponsors, and its list of sponsors includes 45 companies, including the National Australian Bank, Nestle, Philip Morris, Shell and Vodaphone. Travel organisations also feature strongly in the list of sponsors, including STA Travel, Adventure Tours Australia and ECotour Travel Australia.
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The American Hiking Society undertakes repair work on deteriorating hiking trails as well as building new trails in U. S. National Parks and other wilderness areas. Corporate sponsors such as REl and Columbia cover much of the project costs,
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reducing the participation fees for volunteers to $100 per trip ($80 for AHS members)
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for a one or two week project.
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Tourism Research & Marketing
21
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2.5.2. Partnerships ,
Some organisers work in partnership with other non-profit organisations, as in e
case of Amigos de Ias Americas working with Save the Children in Central America and Caritas in South America.
.
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Other partnerships are created with the relevant national Ministries of Health an or
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Education. In some countries, volunteer travel is officially encouraged as a way o
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broadening the horizons of young people and creating links with other coun ries. or
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example in Taiwan:
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With the goal of encouraging college student awareness of the internationa
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community and for them to become global citizens, the Ministry of Education began urging college students in 2006 to form overseas volunteer groups
during summer and winter vacations. Through exchanges with disadvantaged peoples across the world, the volunteers can experience the impacts of poverty,
sickness, and natural and manmade (siC) disasters so that they may learn. the needs of local people, which will further their understanding of different nations and broaden their global view. Last year (2006) tthe MinistryI provided funds for students from seven universities including National Taiwan University to
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volunteer medical and information education services overseas that inclu e
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southern India, Malawi, the border between Thailand and Myanmar, Chiang Mai, and Vietnam. (eng!ish. inoe. gov. to)
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Similarly, the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOGV) programme
*
Offers cooperation in the nation-building efforts of developing countries. Through the program, enthusiastic young people aged 20 to 39 who are technical Iy skilled are sent to such countries for a two-year period, Each year, over I 200 volunteers are dispatched to live and work with the local people of
given countries, and to develop mutual understanding through the IOCa language while engaging in cooperative activities at the grass-roots level. (http://WWW. ICa. gojp/branch/cic/pages/english/e_ov. ocv. html)
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It would seem that some of the organisations identified as being based in developing countries are working directly with organisations based in developed or 'supp y' countries as well as setting up their own websites to promote volunteers directly.
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2.6.
*
Costs
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Most volunteer tourism providers charge a fee to participants, even though they are
volunteers. The argument is that even when the labour is given free, there are sti
costs for running a volunteer project. In order to avoid the costs being paid by t OSe the volunteers are supposed to be helping, the volunteers themselves usual y ear the costs (at least for a short-term programme).
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Most volunteer service organisations also build long"term partnerships with reputa e
local NGOs and through these volunteers are given access to the local community in
a way no unsupported volunteer could hope for. Global Citizen Network be ieves "while individuals may be able to travel for less to many of these places (we) PPVid^
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the entrance into a village and exposure to a culture that one could riot receive i travelling solo. .."
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Tourism Research & Marketing
22
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
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interesting Iy, ecuadorvolunteer. org offers free volunteer placements on its website. Most of these projects are social, community or health projects, generally looking for people with experience. However, there are also some ecological projects as well.
*
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The fees charged and the proportions of those fees that go to the projects in the destination vary widely between organisations. Cousins (2007) found in a review of UK conservation tour operators that the proportion of the fee Teaching the destination varied from 35% to 80% :
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Typically, a proportion of the fee stays in the UK covering the cost to the organisation of providing and managing the program (administrative overheads, volunteer recruitment, marketing, insurance, staff wages, staff training and for a few organisations volunteer training days), The remainder of the fee covers field expenses and project logistics including costs to the partners hosting the holiday (volunteer food, accommodation and transport) and in some cases extra funds are provided to project partners. Coral Cay Conservation puts 59% of the volunteer's fee into covering field expenses and logistics including field equipment, hiring local personal such as cooks and boat drivers and medical equipment. The remaining 41% is spent on: volunteer recruitment, marketing and PR (20%); administrative overheads (12%); insurance (2%); and education (7%).
Jones (2004) found that the 'typical gap year provider is thus charging a fee of between 2500 and 24000 ($, ,000-$8,000) with a small number offering more costly placements. '
Quest, which describes itself as a 'development travel company', offers a four~week
trip to Malawi building community centres for orphans for E1,465 ($2,986), excluding flights and insurance. The same company offers a three-month expedition to Brazil for 1:4,920 ($10,028), again excluding flights and insurance. Mike Lamb, education manager at Quest, says the trips his company run can cost thousands of pounds because they provide long-term help in developing countries. "The expense can be
easily justified. It should cost the local communities nothing to have these unskilled volunteers staying with them. The cost of the trip ensures this. We are not embarrassed by how much our projects cost. The money is going to the right place. "
(Source: Guardian 9'' January 2007) * * *
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The fees charged by organisations therefore vary enormously from the get yourself there and then pay us locally for the transfer to the work site and local food and
lodging' to 'everything included'. However, a large number of the organisations identified do not directly make travel arrangements, the volunteer experience starting on arrival in the country concerned.
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An analysis of the organisations listed in Appendix I indicates that relatively few include any kind of tourism activity or travel arrangements in their quoted fees. Almost none offer to pay expenses or a salary (this would usually only apply to supervisory staff in any case). About I O% of organisations also require the volunteers to raise funds for their projects.
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Tourism Research & Marketing
23
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
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Table 4: Anal SIS of elements included in volunteer tourism foes % of
Elements included'.
organisations I0.9
Tourism Activity included Includes Travel
5.1
Expenses Paid Salary/Fees paid Fund. Raising Required
2.0
0.3 9.6
(Source: TRAM database) Cost structure case studies
Because of the importance of transparency about where the volunteers money goes,
many companies provide detailed breakdowns of their cost structures. The following case studies illustrate the different cost structures that can be found among volunteer
tourism organisations. For example Cross-cultural Solutions' programmes are driven entirely by volunteer contributions and donations. Cross-cultural Solutions How the Fee is allocated
The Volunteer Abroad and Intern Abroad program fees are based on a worldwide
average of Cross-cultural Solutions' expenses. The fees include the base fee (for a two-week program) and the fees for additional weeks of stay. Base Fee - Volunteer Abroad
The base fee of $2,389 for two weeks covers the cost of: $616 - program development and management
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$455 - outreach $305 - volunteer coordination $389 = administration $522 - first two weeks of field expenses
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$1 02 - in country start-up: orientation, placement, assistance and adjustment
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Base Fee - Intern Abroad
*
The program fee for Intern Abroad includes the Volunteer Abroad Base Fee of
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$2,3891isted above plus $300 for costs incurred for Intern Abroad program components. The $300 fee covers the cost of:
*
$43 - volunteer coordination
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$70 - in-country start up $162 - local staffs support $10 - materials
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$10 - transportation $5 - communication
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Most program sites are available for 2 to 12 week stays. There is a 3-week minimum stay for the following countries: Ghana, India, and Tanzania.
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Tourism Research & Marketing
24
*
,
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.
VOLUNTEER TOURISM
*
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After the 2-week base Fee for Volunteer Abroad and Intern Abroad, each additional
week of stay is only $261 (2452). *
What do the costs genera"y cover?
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Administration
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Volunteer service organizations employ a full time staff-to build partnerships and recruit, support, and manage volunteers, The fees paid by volunteers' covers a number of services and means that little to no costs are passed onto. the local NGOs themselves.
*
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*
*
Recruitin and Trainin Volunteers:
Most local NGOs are unable to afford the cost of recruiting international volunteers,
although the discovery of the relatively cheap web opportunities'is changing this. This , ,
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cost includes advertising, brochures, and customer service for prospective volunteers, A portion of a volunteer's fee goes directly into. maintaining this recruitment drive for the future.
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Most organisations will also give training to volunteers and supervisory staff, and for short-term placements there is a considerable time investment required for this.
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Maria in and Su
onin Volunteers:
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The flow of volunteers to and from projects needs to be effectiveIy managed. Many international volunteers have also never travelled overseas. Volunteerservice
organisations provide a wide range of support to their volunteers including help with vaccinations, travel insurance, and fundraising.
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Trainin and Orientation
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Many projects require volunteers to have orientations. and training in languages ,
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and/or special skills, A portion of the fee paid by volunteers goes towards this orientation and training when necessary. i-to-i even provides accredited. TEFL courses to prepare volunteers in all placements where English language instruction is required,
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Medical and Travel I surance
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Often, a volunteers program fee is used to provide comprehensive medical and travel insurance. This gives both the volunteer and their family piece of mind that
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their health and safety are secure. Food and Board
* *
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Volunteer service organization always arranges food and board for volunteers. Often volunteers are hosted by locals who are given a stipend to provide:for the volunteer. The host families provide a safe and welcoming atmosphere for the volunteers.
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Tourism Research & Marketing
25
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VOLUNTEER TOURISM
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Local Trans ort
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Local transportation in a foreign country is intimidating* especially when you don't
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speak the language. Volunteer service organizations often arrange safe local
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transport to and from the airport and other destinations.
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Volunteer service organizations often employ in-country staff to provide local support and services during the volunteer's stay, -The staff also provides a valuable safety net
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just in casesomething goes wrong. ,, ,
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The Pro^Ct Itself *
The most important use for the volunteer's fee is on the project itself. Program fees
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help fund the'project itself, from school supplies to construction materials. With every
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new volunteer comes the funding to continue the project into the future.
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Aid Camps International
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For those attending independent aid camps, they must cover their own and created ' costs in the host country; The registration fee is ^45, and 2100 per week for the first
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three weeks. Thereafter E:50 a week is encouraged,
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Typical "no frills" living costs: 230-235 per week plus ^, 5-245 for arrival and departure. (each way).,
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The first E, 00 'goes equally beltvveen the host country development organisation you
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will be working with and AidCamps. international to fund both organisations charitable work. I 00% of the. -rest, including'. donations more than the minimum, goes directly to
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the objeative(s) agreed with. you'll ' ' .*,
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Aid Camps ask that at least E200 'be used to provide for needs within the cqmmunity of 'your placement, .and agreed before you go. Agree~whatyou d like to fund with the
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rest either beforehand or when you are there. '
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ARSP
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ARSP is a non-profit organization and is not a corporation with u. nlimited monetary
resources; It costs approximately 600 EUR per month to support an ARSp volunteer during the service.
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The work of ARSP. is funded in part by the federal German-Protestant Church, the
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protestant dioceses in'Germany, local"churches, the German government, and the European. Union. More than two-thirds of the remaining costs are financed through
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Tourism Research & Marketing
26
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voL UN TEER To URISM
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Global Service Corps
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Participant fees include subsidized airport pickup, project transportation, hotel, hostel, or homestay accommodations, all meals, language and cultural training, weekend excursion, and project administration, As GSC's primary source of funding,
*
these fees support our in~country coordinators and other staff in Tanzania and
,
Thailand, and also offset the cost of participant recruitment and preparation, pre-trip
planning and in-country project coordination. As staff, we ensure that you and your fellow participants are well informed and prepared for your GSC program work. Due to seasonal Iy varying participation levels, a portion of fees ensures that GSC is able to operate in-country year-round. Participant fees andintemational airfare can be
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claimed as a tax deduction for Us taxpayers to the full extent of the law,
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Administration expenses
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Project Expenses (90%) Field expenses Participant Co-ordination Programme Development Participant Recruitment
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2.7.
Government Funding of Projects
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It is becoming quite difficult to identify exactly what constitutes government funding. It
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is clear that there is a growing fashion for governments to fund projects through a
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range of charities. in developed countries this can be part of a government budget for
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overseas development, in the home country it can be drawn from a range of budgets
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~ environment, education, health and so on.
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WHO ARE THE ORGANISATIONS AND COMPANIES INVOLVED? ,
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The rapid growth in the demand for volunteer experiences abroad has also led to an explosion in the number of organisations offering them. 'One of the longest published guides to these organisations, Volunteer Vacations by Bill MCMillon, listed only 75 such organisations in its first edition in I 987 (Campbe11 1999). In its newest edition, published in 2003, there were approximately 275 organisations' (Leigh, 2006:59-60). Cousins (2007) found over 100 organisations worldwide offering volunteering and wildlife-related holidays.
,
* * *
,
* *,
* *
In our review of volunteer organisations in 2007 we found well over 300 service
providers and host organisations actively offering volunteer tourism on the Internet (see Appendix I ). This indicates a further significant growth in the volunteer tourism sector.
,J
*, *
*; *
"
"
*. *
t
In compiling this list, a number of checks were made to ensure that only those organisations providing genuine volunteer tourism products were included. To qualify as an 'identified organisation' the organisation had to have an active website (some are more active and more regularly updated than others). These websites are listed
in Appendix I. Another requirement was a fixed' address or headquarters location. Only in a very few cases has this rule been ignored, for example where the organisation is operated from a very remote location, usually by an individual who
.*, ,~
'* .
.
Tourism Research & Marketing ,L
27
r~~ a
VOLUNTEER TOURISM I
I.
but is clearly active and has an apparently runs the organisation from their laptop,
*.
.
email address.
Much of the data drawn upon for this study has al een a ub!ished on the relevant websites. Additional materia as e ran e of studies, which are referred to in Appendix 2. Organisation types
. I : :
There are basically three types of organisation, sending, hosting an s ' ' g.
The majority of the organisations we identified are p acemen organisations. Projects may
be run by private associations, churches,
local authorities or .. .
*
communities.
..
Sendin or an is ations
According to the Association of Volunteer Service Organi^ations ( ) ' g or an is ation is 'a voluntary service organisation engage in re
service, carry out training and preparation of volunteers e ore y , . country, they are expected to provide language an in ercu
:
they leave and in the host country.
Pocket money, board and lodging, insurance and suppo y
during the projects. Projects are regularly evaluated an vo un return to their home country.
'The sending and hosting organisations are active in pro^C common good and non-profit making, i. e. pro^C s o ' .g , understanding and reconciliation, awareness and consciousne g , ,
ecological development dealing with cultural problems an p' g youth, the elderly, disabled, refugees, etc, .' Hostin or an is at ions
The hosting organisations may be wholly operated by t e sen ing g , a separate operation in the host country run by anot er organi o erations can also be run on a self-supporting basis y o0a org for the purpose. \
,
The study of volunteer programmes by MOBride at a1. (2006) indicate a ' yfive per cent of the transnational service programmes
international service programmes are administered by s'.
Local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are 9011monly sina . non-pro specific cause, such as running orphanages or bui ding coinm ' y
*
,
organizations rarely have the funding required to recrui an pp
* *
volunteers themselves. To help recruit international vo un eers, y
*
partner with volunteer service organisations. *
Sen/icin or anis ations
* ,
Volunteer Service Organizations such as i~to-i, Global Vo un eers, a
*
Solutions are for-profit or non-profit organizations who recrui , in g , ,
international volunteers. UK-based i-to-i calls itself a 'meaning u rave p ' ,
Tourism Research & Marketing
28 ,
*
*
VOLUNTEER TOURISM
*
sends some 5,000 people a year as part of some 500 projects in 30 countries. Some international service organisations partner with hundreds of local NGOs, supplying a steady cycle of new volunteers. Many volunteer service organisations charge the
*
volunteers a fee to volunteer through their organisation.
* *
,
a ,
Servicing organisations supply information to those seeking volunteer service and tourism opportunities (See also Section 9 - Volunteer Tourism on the Web). These
P
include AVSO and Voluntourism and they generate feedback on past volunteers
experiences through their websites. * *
There is also evidence that mainstream travel organisations are now recognising the
*
potential of volunteer servicing organisations as a lucrative market niche. In March 2007 First Choice Holidays, a mainstream UK tour operator, acquired I-to-i, iExplore Inc and TKJ Pty Ltd trading as Western Xposure for a combined price of 221.7 million ($41 million).
*
*
There are also peripheral organisations such as Global EXchange Reality Tours that
*
do riot involve 'work' as such, but claim to link travellers with activities and
organisations who are working for a positive change. The company offers programmes to many countries and provides an opportunity for Americans to travel
*
as 'citizen ambassadors' to countries such as Syria, Iran, Libya and Cuba.
* ..
* * ,
*
,
*
,
\
A large number of people also volunteer independently of volunteer service organisations each year. For those more comfortable with international travel, independent volunteering is the perfect option and it is clear that some travellers simply stumble over a project during their travels and decide to stay for a while. Our research on independent travellers in 2007 indicates that these independent volunteers form a very large proportion of those undertaking volunteer tourism (see section 7.3).
* *
,
3. f
Types of Organisations offering Volunteer Tourism Experiences
,
, *
, .
I
There is a very wide range of organisations offering the volunteer tourism experience; they can broadly be divided into the following:
$ *
*
* ,
t , *
, .
a) Direct contact with the volunteer experience by Single country organisations, usually based in the country concerned c) Co-ordinating organisations, bringing the local experience to the supply market place
d) Commercial tqur operators (often acting through a non"profit subsidiary) e) Search base Organisation, providing a website service offering of a range of experiences. Among these may be some National Tourist Offices as in the example of Ecuador, http://WWW. vivecuador. coin/htm!21eng/volunteer. htm) f) Advice organisations
,
* * *
*
,; *
,
* "
*
These different types of organisations may also have different motivations for promoting volunteer tourism, including: a) Religious convictions b) Supporting a specific charitable cause c) Medical, usually aimed at recruiting experience volunteers d) Providing cultural or work experiences for student e) Green, conservation, or environmental organisations f) Political objectives g) Language School/Learning in Promoting women's rights ,
*
*
.*
,
Tourism Research & Marketing
29
VOLUNTEER TOURISM
According to the International EGOtourism Society, the market for conservationoriented tourism in particular is growing rapidly; in 2004, worldwide ecotourism and nature tourism were growing three times faster than the tourism industry as a whole.
The popularity of nature-based travel led the United Nations to hold a World
EGOtourism Summit and declare 2002 the International Year of EGOtourism. More than 55 million Americans are interested in sustainable travel, which protects both environment and culture, according to a study in 2003 by the Travel Industry Association of America.
Duane Silverstein, executive director of Seacology, said, 'These people are looking
for two things: access to unique areas that most tourists can never visit, and a way to
improve the quality of life of the people and places they do visit. ' Seacology trips visit project sites in remote places like Fiji, where the group built a kindergarten in return for the establishment of a 17-square-mile marine reserve, and Tonga, where a
floating medical clinic was set up as incentive for the creation of a nature preserve. 4.
FACTORS STIMULATING THE GROWrH OF VOLUNTEER TOURISM
The two basic factors stimulating the growth of volunteer tourism have been the
growth of tourism in general (and particularly youth travel) and an increasing willingness to volunteer for service abroad. The Us Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that nearly 30 per cent of Americans of
16 years and older had participated in service projects in 2005. Among nearly 264,000 incoming college students that year, 83 per cent said that they had given their time during the previous 12 months, the highest rate in the nearly 40 year
history of the Co-operative Institutional Research Project s Freshman Survey. Twothirds said they would be likely to volunteer more in future
The general increase in volunteer participation is also reflected in the growth in the UN volunteer programme, which gives young people the opportunity to undertake development-related projects across the world. Growth in the number of participants in the programme has been particularly strong in the last few years, with an increase from just over 5000 in 2003 to 8000 in 2005.
Of the more than 300 organisations identified in this study (Appendix I ), 207 reported their foundation year. The first, AFS, was founded in I 914 in connection with supplying volunteers from the USA to assist the troops in the First World War. The most recent organisation included in the current study, Cyntax Foundation, was founded in 2007 to assist volunteers to work in Southeast Asia.
For those organisations for which data on the age of the organisation are available, the rapid recent growth of the market is clear. Over 70% of organisations operating today have been founded since 1980. The rate of growth also seems to be increasing, with almost six organisations a year having been established since I 990, compared with three a year during the I 980s.
Tourism Research & Marketing
30
a * *
voL UN TEER To URiSM
,.
*
*
Figure 2: Numbers of participants in the UN volunteer programme, I 985-2006 , ,
9000
, ,
8000
t
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4. *
6000 t
5000
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4000 -
, ,
3000
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About 70% of volunteer travelers were students, and over 90% of these were studying full time. The vast majority of students were undergraduates in their first four years of study. However there were also a number of travelers who had been studying for five years or more, particularly on medical courses.
Table I3. ' Student volunteers ear of stud Total
What year of study are you in? (%) 2 23 30
Undergraduate Graduate
22
flu
42 - ', 3 26 I- ~; 20"
Postgraduate *' ,
3 4 26. 22 30 15 ,7 ..
5 3 5 I.
4 . . ,,.,,*4'
7 I' to 21
26 , I' 48. .
3 * , .,-3-
5.
..
-6 .3
,00 100 100 100
Social sciences and professional courses such medicine or teaching made up the bulk of all volunteers. Those studying business were much less likely to volunteer, and much more likely to take up paid employment abroad.
Table 14: Student volunteer stud courses
''''' '''' ' ' ' "~ ' .. , , , , ,, .,., Social sciences'- ' ' ' ' .. ' ' ' . .* . . - : . ..-'--. ' . ;;.
Pibfes^5ioriai fan^Ity (e. g. lawj. medicine, teaching)':,- ,.....'.,*~:
27 18 8
Sciiei, Gel(e. g. .bit>logy, chemistry, physics) I ~' I. , *1, -"": .. Busint, ss I C, ^'minerce . . . I * ' "... . ' '..
,
Fine arts. (e. g; art, .theatre, drama) ..
Technical. (^. g;-'e, 19ih:eeting;, applied sciences)
.
% 33
Vocational, ;
..:
11
;'
I-.
,.,
... .\
7 *, , .... . .*,
5 .~... *.
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Most of those surveyed in the un'SE Travel Confederation study were on low incomes, and self-selected themselves as either 'travellers' or 'backpackers' rather than 'tourists' (figure 8).
,
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Tourism Research & Marketing
51
VOLUNTEER TOURISM
Figure 8: Travel style .
Other ,,%
Backpacker
^
Tourist
33%
.*,"****
159'.
At'~,~. ,.. ,,*,* *\-**~***-,,*. ^
A1
Tra\eller 41%
The leading regional destinations for volunteer tourists in 2007 were Central and Southern Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, North America and Australia also featured strongly among the top destinations, but all other regions accounted for 59'. or less of total trips. This presents a strong contrast to the pattern of youth travel in
general, which is dominated by European and North American destinations. It seems that volunteer tourism is therefore strongly influenced by the supply of volunteer
placements, which are predominantly located in Latin America, Africa and Asia (Table 11).
^gure 9: Regional destinations of volunteers Central and Southern Africa Central America!Caribbean South East Asia Soulh America
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North America Austinlasia
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Northern Europe Indian subcontinent
China and Japan Southern Europe Eastern Europe
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North Aidca
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15
20
25
%
Information sources
The key role now played by the Internet in gathering information on volunteer
programmes is confirmed by the survey data. Internet was by far the most important source of information, followed by family and friends, guidebooks and tourist information offices. Travel agents were far more important than tour operators as information sources for this sample of respondents.
Tourism Research & Marketing
52
voL UNTEER To uRisM
Figure IO: Information sources Internet
Family, friends
A, .*t. **,***\ .. ***- ',*,'*~\ t .* ,/ ~***L I. .,*' *. t. ***. J.,,*'***'
Guidebooks
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Travel agency Embassy I Consulate Tour operator brochures I websites Product suppliers: airlines. hostels, Information from previous visit
Newspaper, magazines
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Other books Exhibition I Fair I Trade shows TV I radio
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20
80
60
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,00
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Travel arrangements The way in which volunteers arranged their travel and volunteer programmes
emphasises the growing importance of the Internet. Volunteers were most likely to
have booked their air travel over the Internet, even though visits to travel agents still accounted for a third of all bookings. Onward surface travel was unlikely to be booked in advance, but most travelers had made a prior booking for their volunteer programme, mainly over the internet.
Table I4: Travel arran ements % :.
..
*,
Online' '
,-,-,
Air travel I Surface
**
tr, ^veil I '
..: ' " '* *' .
Volunteer
programme
42 I' "' ,. 11'15
\
49 9 ,18 24
.,,
Ina travel'agency '~
35
Phone or fax
16 I, ~' I I, 1.6
NO 'rior bookin
10'
7 '~ '. " ' 68
Where the specific supplier channels are concerned, almost a third of travelers
booked directly with the volunteer programme or service agency. Air travel was most likely to be arranged through a specialist student or youth travel agency.
Accommodation was often booked directly with the volunteer organisation, as accommodation is usually included in the volunteer package. Table f 5: AGCommodatibn booked J J
Air travel Accommodation Volunteer ,,~..
*.
. ~*'..
,. .,. .* .* .,.
iseneral~ travel agent I- ' ... ,..^*-.. . 'Specialised*student/youth '
18 41 :.. .
..
travel'agent . .j. ...-,.'.,'. . I'\,,-
Directly. \!rifti ^rodii6t:^!innli^r::' ~
.Other. --'., I 11-., .~, . -.' I . -.
No bookin made - , - '. - I
Tourism Research & Marketing
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2
. ,*!5.
16
*
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Other S^e^ialispd:travel agent. -;.;:
, 7.
-. ; *.
programme
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6 . ~- I. ,, '... .:':,. I'*---7-
25 I .:\:":.; ."':::'.' ' ';'. 27* ...
.
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6 ----. 3 ..
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...
5
32 19 25
53
.,
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voL UN TEER To uRisM
The types of accommodation used during the whole trip (not just the volunteer programme) tended to be mainly hostels and hotels. The large 'other' category refers to the wide range of different types of local accommodation often used by volunteer programmes, including family stays.
Figure f I. ' Types of accommodation used by volunteers (multi^e responses possible) .
Hostel
a\'^,, At. ;^;******^'*^^*,
Hotel
Stayed with family or friends Other
A** ;; ',,
.
$3, ', I : ,J , ',-*
Guesthouse, pension, etc. Room in a pri^te house Tent I care^n
Self catering accommodation
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,
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Camper^n I motor home o
20
40
60
80
100
v. ,I
The tendency for large numbers of volunteers to travel without using the services of volunteer placement organisations is emphasised by research in the UK in 2006 (Milk Round 2007). This shows that gap year participants doing voluntary work were roughly evenly split in terms of whether they were using the services of a commercial or charitable gap year activity coordinator - one of the plathora of organisations which send gappers on travel or work trips and arrange details such as flights, visa and activities in eXchange for raising funds or paying a fee. A slight majority, 54%, were planning to use these services, and 46% were not. Expenditure
The average total expenditure for volunteer tourists was around $3100 per trip, Volunteers tended to have a slightly lower spend per day than other young travellers, but because of their long duration of stay their total spend was on average almost 20% higher. This underlines the economic value of volunteer tourists to the destination, particularly because these travellers tend to be visiting areas removed from the normal tourist trails.
Table I6:Avera e s end er da
Length of last main trip abroad (days)
Total
expenditure ($)
Average spend per
day ($)
Volunteers
72
3.06
43
Other travellers
53
2597
49
54
2615
49
Not surprising Iy, the biggest single item of expenditure was travel to the destination, which accounted for 40% of volunteer spending. Volunteers spent less on ,
Tourism Research & Marketing
54 *.
voL UN TEER To uRisM
accommodation and food than other travellers, which is not surprising given the noncommercial nature of most of the accommodation used.
Fig 12: Expend^^ure by 'volunteers' compared to other tourists 45 40 35
^
30 25 ~ 20 15 to 5o
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a Volunteers
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