Towards an Understanding of the Drivers of Commercialization in the Volunteer Tourism Sector

Abstract

Well-meaning volunteer tourism organizations, involving international volunteers in local community and environmental development projects, have been increasingly criticized for increasingly commercialized business models. This conceptual paper reviews important organizational drivers that influence the commercialization of the volunteer tourism sector. It posits a number of predictive measures based upon the internal and external drivers that will determine a volunteer tourism organization's position along a philanthropic-commercial continuum. It achieves this by building on lessons from the broader nonprofit sector, including research in social entrepreneurship. It also suggests topics for further research based upon this literature and current knowledge gaps within volunteer tourism. Further research in this area will assist organizations engaged in, or considering, volunteer tourism to think pragmatically about issues of commercialization within this sector‥

Keywords:

• sustainable tourism
• alternative tourism
• volunteer tourism
• commercialization
• social entrepreneurship