tourism within those boundaries of alternative tourism as well as mass tourism. In exploring alternative tourism experiences within the context of wider discussions about culture and society, it is proposed that alternative tourism experiences can best be clarified by the particularity of the specific tourist experience.
Chapter 3 focuses on community development in volunteer tourism destinations. Ideally, volunteer tourism programmes and projects are developed in a way that places the community at the centre of the discussion. While many organizations wholeheartedly agree with and work to implement this perspective, they sometimes struggle with the operationalization of the concept. Fortunately, there are several practical community-based tourism development models available that can address this problem. These include the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach, the Tourism Optimization Management Model (TOMM), Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Appreciative Inquiry (AI). Each brings a viable framework to the community development table that can assist with the inclusion of volunteer tourism in the alternative tourism mix. Chapter 3 explains each of these models in detail and provides examples of their value to volunteer tourism development
Chapter 4 discusses the importance of the volunteer tourism organization as a vital component of the three-legged stool of the host community, the volunteer tourist and the volunteer tourism organization. After initially laying the groundwork that includes a review of the research in this area, the author targets several exemplary organizations, including CVA, MIUSA and YCI. The chapter concludes with a list of other exemplary volunteer tourism organizations.
Chapter 5 is written by Simone Grabowski and explores the motivations and perspectives of the volunteer tourist. This includes a review of the work in mainstream tourism motivations, with particular attention paid to the theoretical perspectives that have been at the centre of the discussion for decades. This is followed by a more specific discussion that targets the unique motivations of volunteer tourists, which includes the altruism versus self-development debate, the role of adventure/discovery, social interaction, learning and timing. The chapter concludes that there is not one single motivation that is more common among volunteer tourists than the others, and in fact the core motivation will vary depending on a person’s values, personality and life stage. Although a number of empirical studies have been cited, current research is still limited, and a clear picture has yet to emerge on whether the motives of volunteer tourists differ according to demographics or some other independent variable.
Chapter 6 is organized into two primary sections. This first introduces the reader to a potential mechanism that can improve the way projects are established and evaluated with local communities: The 2008 Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC). These guidelines brought together over 40 of the world’s leading public, private, non-profit and academic institutions in a broad-based stakeholder consultation process. The GSTC focus on: maximizing social and economic benefits to local communities; reducing negative impacts on cultural heritage; reducing harm to local environments; and planning for sus-tainability. Standards such as these can bring about less market-based and more genuine local community projects and volunteer tourism experiences grounded in the cultures and daily lives of local communities. The second section presents research on three volunteer tourism programmes, including the Taita Discovery Centre in Kenya (by Andrew Lepp), the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, Phuket, Thailand (by Sue Broad & John Jenkins), and a collection of study tours to Cuba including Global Exchange Reality Tours and Oxfam (by Rochelle Spencer).
Chapter 7, written by Matthew McDonald and John Wilson, presents an existential perspective to volunteer tourism. McDonald and Wilson begin with background on the history, research and paradigm of existentialism. They then tackle the notion of authenticity and the role of volunteer tourism in creating an authentic experience. They claim that volunteer tourism differs from other forms of tourism in that it offers much greater opportunities to negotiate the fundamental conditions of existence, and therefore modes of authenticity. In most forms of tourism, the tourist is chaperoned and protected in the countries, regions and cities they seek to travel through (Olsen, 2002). In contrast, volunteer tourism ideally dissolves the barriers that exist between tourists, locals, culture and the environment. By its very nature it fosters intimacy and closeness when volunteers find themselves working and living alongside their hosts; it affords a degree of mutual exchange and interaction that is uncommon in other forms of tourism (Zahra & McIntosh, 2007).
Chapter 8 closely examines the extremely elusive concept of cross-cultural relations between hosts and guests, both in terms of mainstream and volunteer tourism. Issues of tourist privilege over host communities, the notion of ‘Other-ing’ at both the individual and community level, and methods of resistance implemented by the host community are all addressed. The chapter concludes with research-based recommendations to encourage rich and rewarding cross-cultural experiences for both the volunteer tourist and the local community.
Chapter 9 looks ahead to the potential futures of volunteer tourism. In particular, the economic form, motivations, and planning and policy of volunteer tourism in the future are the focus of this chapter. Volunteer tourism is, in many ways, standing at a crossroads. Will it succumb, like many other forms of tourism, to commodification, or will it resist and become an example of an enlightened, decommodified experience? Next, will the altruism versus self-development debate be put to rest? Finally, will the ground-breaking efforts like those of the International Ecotourism Society (TIES) Voluntourism guidelines (2012) result in a more formalized accreditation process that is accessible to a wide range of volunteer tourism providers, or will accreditation only be financially viable for a few elite volunteer tourism organizations? While these questions cannot yet be answered, they certainly need to come to the forefront of research and policy in volunteer tourism. The goal of this chapter in particular, and the book overall, is to pose these questions and encourage the dialogue to continue across and amongst researchers, volunteer tourism providers, the local communities and volunteer tourists everywhere.
Note
1See for example Gray’s Wanderlust/Sunlust Theory (Mathieson & Wall, 1982), Ross’ consideration of Pull/Push determinants (1994: 21) or even Plog’s (1974) analysis of allocentric and psychocentric personalities in dictating travel behaviour.
2 Alternative Tourism Experiences
Introduction
The original version of this chapter first appeared in Volunteer Tourism: Experiences That Make a Difference, written in 2001. Here, we revisit the major themes concerning alternative tourism experiences in order to demonstrate where volunteer tourism sits on the tourism continuum, and how it contrasts with mass tourism experiences.
Tourism in general has developed as a modern, largely Western endeavour, the analysis of which has evolved from pre-modernism through to postmodernism. Today modern tourism differs considerably from non-Western and historical forms of travel, although it has some similarities (Graburn, 1995). In particular, it has enabled the masses to travel and has been closely related to the emergence of modernity (Cohen, 1995), where consumption is a main tenet. The abundance of the modern Western touristic experiences during this evolution, particularly since the 1980s, has generated a variety of means of researching tourism. Tourism theories and research have emerged from a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including
