If each sector has an understanding of where volunteer tourism fits within the broader framework of the tourism and conservation sectors, then there is a greater likelihood of well-designed volunteer programmes. For example, a well-designed ecotourism-led volunteer tourism programme could focus on community-value driven volunteering in protected areas while providing education for outsiders (Kutay, 1990: 38). The ecotourism organizations and their approaches therefore are an essential part of the volunteer experience.
By their very nature, ecotourism and volunteer tourism operate optimally within these parameters:
• infrastructure that is sensitively developed where the tourism industry accepts integrated planning and regulation;
• supply-led marketing by the tourism industry;
• the establishment of carrying capacities (environmental and cultural) and strict monitoring of these; and
• the environmentally sensitive behaviour and operations of tourists and operators.
While ecotourism organizations have been the focus of this discussion thus far, a wide range of institutions and organizations play an important role in providing volunteer tourism experiences. The types of organizations vary considerably; a number provide international support and sponsorship for the implementation of research projects and community development. These organizations facilitate this process through provision of necessary resources that may not otherwise be available. The international scope of these organizations can prove invaluable assistance in terms of their accumulated knowledge and experience. These types of organizations provide a large number of recruits through volunteer tourism with the discretionary time and money to spend on sustainable development efforts (Whelan, 1991; McGehee & Santos, 2005). As such, they need access to relevant educational information before, during and after their experience. This will ensure maximization of their experience both on site and back in their own community.
A number of authors suggest there is clear evidence that highly commodi-fied tourism is leading to unacceptable impacts on social and cultural values in some developing countries (Butler, 1992; Lea, 1993; Brohman, 1996; Robinson & Boniface, 1999; Cloke & Perkins, 2002; Archer et al., 2005; Wearing et al., 2005; Jamal et al., 2006; Holden, 2008; Kabwe-Segatti, 2009). Mass tourism is part of the free market economy, whereas volunteer tourism has roots in the decommodified spaces of community and environment. As a result, volunteer tourism often operates outside the traditional channels of mass tourism. Tourism in the free market economy uses and exploits communities and natural resources as a means of profit accumulation and has been described as the commercialization of the human need to travel. This can lead to the exploitation of host communities, their culture and environment (Lea, 1993: 714). A further concern over the impact of tourism on local culture is that organizations operating under the banner of ecotourism and volunteer tourism may need to accept regulations to protect natural environments from the exploitative attitudes of the free market society.
It is conceivable that if volunteer tourism became dominated by the market economy, creating barriers between the volunteer tourist and the destination areas, then it would simply become another of a litany of commercially driven choices — and its purpose or significance becomes benign. This book seeks to address the idea that volunteer tourism enables the individual to have an experience that incorporates social value into identity and hence links the host community, the environment and self. If the key to a volunteer tourist experience is appreciation and awareness of the local environment (cultural and social), then the danger is that the volunteer tourist just becomes another consumer of a market product and thus eliminates or ‘filters out’ the underlying volunteer-community link in the experience.
Volunteer tourism experiences can be examined differently from other tourism experiences, particularly in terms of the notion of self. Some argue that volunteer experiences cause value and consciousness changes in the individual that will subsequently influence their concept of self, and may even predicate a change in identity, (e.g. Wearing, 2002; Lepp, 2008). However, McDonald et al. (2009) argue that the pursuit of a desired identity is often derailed through the promulgation in modern Western societies of an ideal consumer whose primary leisure activity is consumption. As a result, this commodified volunteer tourist can never achieve what they seek. The experience becomes a tranquillizer rather than an awareness raising experience. The individual is left with an unsatisfactory search for some form of identity and an endless need to follow the latest dictates of big business and tourist markets. Local destination communities are consumed under the guise of a legitimate altruistic activity rather than leading to awareness and appreciation of culture, nature and discovery of the travel—self link. This commodified version of volunteer tourism therefore does not legitimize the rights of the host community as an entity with its own history and sense of place, but rather provides another source of consumption that will actually endanger the very communities and environments the volunteer tourist seeks to protect. Further, the volunteer tourists themselves are com-plicit in this consumption and commodifying process and are then the economic ‘units’ targeted by the industry.
The Growth in Volunteer Tourism
Volunteer tourism is a rapidly growing phenomenon (Bakker & Lamoureux, 2008; Tourism Research and Marketing, 2008). A survey of over 300 volunteer tourism agencies worldwide indicated the market has grown to a total of 1.6 million volunteer tourists a year, with a value of £832 million-1.3 billion (US$1.7–2.6 billion) (Tourism Research and Marketing, 2008). However, accurately estimating volunteer tourism activity is difficult due to the diversity in volunteer and travel activities. According to Tourism Research and Marketing (2008: 5), volunteer tourism involves a combination of travel and voluntary (unpaid) work. At present, the majority of agencies providing volunteer tourism products are not-for-profit; however, there has been a steady increase in the number of commercial ventures now entering the market. Their activities (volunteer tourism agencies) 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 US$3000 a trip in 2007 (Tourism Research and Marketing, 2008: 5).
Other findings from the Tourism Research and Marketing (2008) report into volunteer tourism include:
• Volunteer tourists are more likely to be women than men.
• Seventy per cent of volunteer tourists are aged between 20 and 25.
• Motivations for volunteer travel include a mixture of volunteering, exploring other cultures, and working and studying abroad.
• Many volunteer tourists source their own placements once they arrive at their destination.
• Ninety per cent of volunteer tourists travel to Latin America, Africa or Asia.
Volunteer tourism encompasses a range of types including international gap-year travel, international volunteer development work, environmental project volunteering and travel that includes both tourism and volunteering. International gap-year travel has emerged as a significant player in global youth tourism in recent years. A ‘gap-year’ is defined as a nominal period during which a person delays further education or employment in order to travel (Millington, 2005). Although this interlude may be experienced at any point across the lifespan, it is within the period of late adolescence and early adulthood that the gap-year experience has become most popular. In Australia, the gap-year concept has only recently developed traction. Products designed for what has been evocatively branded by one major commercial travel service provider as the ‘Big Year Out’ are beginning to feature in commercial