Do the locals really feel good? Understanding wellbeing in volunteer tourism from the perspectives of host communities in Mongolia

ABSTRACT

Building on emerging interdisciplinary research in wellbeing and tourism, this paper examines the effectiveness of volunteer tourism projects and explores the impacts on individual participants in host communities with a case study of Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, which is one of the fastest-growing volunteer tourism destinations in the world. Beyond the PERMA model proposed by Seligman (2010. Flourish: Positive psychology and positive interventions. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, 31, 1–56), this paper puts forward the ‘Wellbeing Hexagon’, which includes six measures of wellbeing for individuals (Positive emotions, Negative emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment). It highlights how the experience in volunteer tourism affects local participants’ hedonic and eudaemonic happiness on different domains in the Wellbeing Hexagon. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the understanding of volunteer tourism impacts on individuals in host communities and suggests ways to enhance the effectiveness of volunteer tourism programmes.

KEYWORDS:

• Volunteer tourism
• voluntourism
• wellbeing
• PERMA
• Mongolia

Acknowledgements

Fieldwork for this research was supported by the HKU Postgraduate Scholarship, HKU SPACE Research Fund (200004912), and the Faculty of Social Sciences Funding Support on International Learning Experience. I would like to thank the Institute of International Business and Governance, The Open University of Hong Kong, established with the substantial support of a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (UGC/IDS16/17), for its support. I am very grateful to my respondents in Mongolia, and would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Fieldwork for this research was supported by the HKU Postgraduate Scholarship and the Faculty of Social Sciences Funding Support on International Learning Experience.

Notes on contributors

H. Y. Lee

H. Y. Lee is an Assistant Professor at the School of Business and Administration at the Open University of Hong Kong. Her research revolves around the areas of cultural geography and tourism in the Asian context.