WWOOFing in Australia: ideas and lessons for a de-commodified sustainability tourism

Abstract

This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based exploration of the perspectives and interactions of WWOOFers and WWOOF hosts in Australia, using 323 formal written surveys of hosts and 188 surveys of WWOOFers, together with 16 in-depth unstructured WWOOFer interviews, which collectively enhances understanding of WWOOFing as an emerging, unique and valuable form of sustainable tourism. By virtue of the highly engaged and symbiotic basis of the exchange involved, WWOOFing is commonly perceived to facilitate a transcendence of the role of tourist. The research indicates this is the product of a unique relationship forged in the WWOOFing context, which differs markedly to relationships forged in more typical fee-for-service tourism contexts in which there is a different relationship at play between power, authenticity and sustainability. This relationship is outlined in order to articulate the notion that WWOOFing represents a type of “sustainability tourism” that is unexplored in the sustainable tourism literature.

澳大利亚WWOOFing：将可持续旅游非商业化的想法和经验

这篇论文将有机农场义工视为一种可持续旅游业，并通过在文化和社会方面的关注以及一种能提高参与者对生态可持续的意识与理解的深入方式来看待这种义工行为。这种基础理论的得来是建立在对澳大利亚农场义工和农场主之间观点与互动的探索。而这种探索过程中采用了323位农场主和188位义工的正式调查报告，以及对义工的16次深入但随意的采访。这些采访都加强了 对有机农场义工这种新兴，独特和有价值的可持续发展旅游业形式的理解。有机农场义工有着高参与度的价值和内含的生态基础交换，因此它被普遍接受为是一种促进游客角色的卓越度。调查表明，这是在WWOOFing环境下一种独特关系锻造的乘积效应，这种关系与在更加典型的收费服务旅游业环境下的关系锻造有明显的不同。而这种不同的关系表现在权力，真实性和可持续性。这个关系需要被强调是为了，明确地表达一种观念，有机农场义工代表一种可持续性旅游业，而缺乏关于此项旅游的文学作品。

Keywords:

• WWOOF
• guest-host relationships
• authenticity
• sincerity
• sustainable tourism
• volunteer tourism

关键字:

• 有机农场义工
• 主客关系
• 权威性
• 真实性
• 可持续旅游业
• 志愿者旅游业和游客经验

Acknowledgements

The authors thank WWOOF Australia for their excellent support and contributions to the research underpinning this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adrian Deville

Adrian Deville is trained in social and biological sciences, with a PhD degree from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) for his research on WWOOFing in Australia. He is currently engaged in establishing an ecotourism business within Yuraygir National Park which will directly support public and private conservation efforts.

Stephen Wearing

Stephen Wearing is an associate professor at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). His research and projects are in leisure and tourism studies with specific interests in ecotourism, community based and volunteer tourism; environmentalism; sociology of leisure and tourism and social sciences in protected area management.

Matthew McDonald

Matthew McDonald is a lecturer in the Department of Management, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His research interests are in the application of Continental philosophy and social theory to psychology and organisational studies, critical social psychology, consumer culture and political economy.