Abstract
Volunteer Tourism: Theoretical Frameworks and Practical Applications is an edited volume by Angela M. Benson that makes a significant contribution to an emerging field. Explicitly cited as “theoretically rich, practically applied, and empirically grounded” (p. 3), authors of this volume add to the growing scholarship on volunteer tourism. Contributors include a diverse group of international scholars from the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education’s Volunteer Tourism Research Group and members of the Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education’s Special Interest Group on volunteering and tourism. Benson’s introduction (Chapter 1) begins by providing an overview of the research on volunteer tourism citing Stephen Wearing’s 2001 book Volunteer Tourism: Experiences That Make a Difference “as the catalyst for the literature that followed” (p. 2). Benson then highlights other significant publications that have helped the field to gain momentum in the last decade and presents an outline for the volume, which is split into two parts. The two parts of this volume describe the complexities inherent in a wide range of volunteer sites, practices, and activities.
Part 1 (Chapters 2-8), subtitled The Volunteer: Motivation, Experiences and the Self, begins with discussion in the first two chapters of the portmanteau “voluntourism,” a blend of “volunteer” and “tourist.” In Chapter 2, Zoë Alexander and Ali Bakir use Glaserian grounded theory as a research approach to understand the key terms associated with voluntourism. Drawing on these terms, the authors develop a definition of voluntourism as the “engagement in volunteer work as a tourist” (p. 12). In Chapter 3, Bilge Daldeniz and Mark P. Hampton break up the term voluntourists into VOLUNtourists and volunTOURISTS, distinguishing between the volunteers assumed motivations for service. The following chapters in this section use international case studies to illuminate fundamental ideas within the literature on volunteer tourism.
The two chapters that conclude Part 1 are particularly noteworthy due to their retrospective focus and insight into the long-term impact of volunteer tourism. This discussion is significant because research focused on volunteer tourism is fairly new and the long-term impact on volunteers is not sufficiently understood. In Chapter 7, Anne Zahra details a longitudinal study focused on the motivation and impact of service on volunteers. Findings from this study indicate the potential for volunteer tourism to have intrinsic rewards for participants (p. 90). Narratives from volunteers in this study also illustrate impacts atypical to general tourism including “a resistance to materialistic and consumer society, a sustained consciousness of one’s role within the family and society, examples of advocacy and a commitment to social development and a rejection of mass tourism” (p. 99). In Chapter 8, David Mittelberg and Michal Palgi investigate the long-term impact of volunteer tourism on kibbutz volunteers in Israel. Results from this study showed a significant amount of personal growth among these individuals. The authors also address the negative aspects cited by a small number of their interlocutors that included poor living conditions, negative relationships, and undesirable work responsibilities while on the kibbutz. These points are important in order to understand the experiences of volunteer tourists and improve conditions for volunteers.
Part 2 (Chapters 9-16), subtitled Expanding the Boundaries of Volunteer Tourism Research addresses topics that have seen little to no attention in the volunteer tourism literature. Part 2 begins with Caroline A. Walsh and Mark P. Hampton’s discussion of disabled dive tourism in Chapter 9. Stating that, “Until recently volunteering in the UK was something that was carried out ‘on’ disabled people, not by disabled people” (p. 124), the authors of this chapter begin an important dialog that recognizes disabled volunteer tourists within the academic literature. Chapter 11’s Jamie Kaminski, David B. Arnold, and Benson discuss another form of volunteer tourism that has seen little attention, volunteer archaeological tourism. In addition to including a fascinating history of archaeological excavation, the authors of this chapter explain that unlike other forms of volunteer tourism, archaeological volunteer tourism is unique because it is common in Europe and North America. This popularity can be attributed, at least in part, to the number of archaeological sites and the amount of resources, interest, funding, and support that is available in these regions of the world. In Chapter 13, Stephen Wearing and Simone Grabowski discuss the relationship between host communities and volunteers. The authors differentiate between the relationships created between volunteer and host and those formed between tourist and host. Wearing and Grabowski explain that in fact “relationships between volunteer and host appear to be more equal than that formed in a tourism experience” (p. 205). This builds on Zahra’s discussion in Chapter 7 regarding the distinct impact volunteer tourism has on volunteers and is an important comparison as volunteer tourism distinguishes itself from mass tourism. In Chapter 14, Joanne Ingram takes a critical look at the alleged benefits of volunteer tourism as a “niche market,” and questions if volunteer tourism is beneficial. Citing an imbalance within the scholarship that narrowly focuses on the impact of volunteer tourism on the volunteer and not people within host communities, Ingram makes a critique that more research is needed before it can be claimed that host communities benefit from volunteer tourism. The author also advocates toward actively pursuing good development principles in order to deter neo-colonization and other possibly negative consequences on host communities. Chapter 15’s Liam Fee and Anna Mdee take a more optimistic approach to volunteer tourism suggesting “Whilst the neocolonial and negative impact critiques do have some validity, they do not account for the potentially positive aspects of volunteer tourism” (p. 226). These authors address the negatives associated with volunteer tourism as well as potential positive outcomes. In doing this they cite efforts such as a UK-based volunteering NGO’s attempt to build an accreditation agency to help regulate the standards of the volunteer tourism industry. The concluding chapter (Chapter 16), authored by Benson, serves as an appropriate bookend summarizing points made within both sections and providing suggestions for future research.
This text is accessible to a wide audience and contributes positively to the emerging scholarship on volunteer tourism. The structure of this volume is particularly helpful as Part 1 lays a framework for understanding volunteer tourism and Part 2 expands on this literature by providing an agenda for developing new lines of research. Part 2 is especially effective due to its scope. This volume’s most noteworthy contribution is the discussion concerning both the positive and negative impacts of volunteer tourism on the “volountoured” in Chapters 14 and 15. The juxtaposition of these two chapters is not only helpful in understanding differing perspectives, but also points to an emerging discourse on the impact of volunteers on host communities within the volunteer tourism literature.
Overall, individual author contributions to this volume are consistently strong. Reliance on the foundational work of Wearing suggests the need for scholars to continue to develop analytical paradigms as the discipline continues to grow. The international case studies discussed in this volume, while diverse in the number of countries explored, narrowly focus on individuals from the industrialized world participating in service in developing countries. Though Benson addresses this focus, the narrowness seems surprising given the breadth of contributors and multinationality of the field. Is one to suppose that no member of the “third world” participates in volunteer tourism or that the “developed world” is rarely a site for voluntourists? If the argument is to be made that volunteer tourism is not a form of neocolonization, as Fee and Mdee argue in Chapter 15, discussion concerning a broader range of volunteer tourism participants and sites is necessary as scholars continue to investigate the global impact of voluntourism. These are small matters considering the strength of this volume.
Volunteer Tourism: Theoretical Frameworks and Practical Applications stands as an important contribution to a burgeoning field. Intended for a broad audience, the discussion of terminology, inclusion of case studies, and suggestion for future research directions makes this text appropriate as both an introductory or supplementary reading on volunteer tourism. This work expands on previous literature notably Lyons and Wearing’s Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism: International Case Study Perspectives by providing additional case studies and further directions for research. The addition of sites and critical methodologies to tourism studies illustrates the complexities of volunteer tourism and adds new voices to the current scholarly discourse.