The Geography of Volunteer Tourism: Place Matters

Abstract

Volunteer tourism is a growing form of alternative travel and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are the primary institutions placing volunteers abroad. This empirical study focuses on the criteria used by volunteer-tourism NGOs for choosing countries and locations for their work. It also assesses how they use tourist activities and place image to market destinations and to pull or draw in potential volunteers. An examination of the postings on volunteerabroad.com showed that the activity by international volunteer NGOs is clustered or geographically concentrated in just a few places. The twelve member organizations of the International Volunteer Programs Association (IVPA) were used as a case study group, and interviews with the directors identified six criteria for choosing project locations. They were safety, need, attractiveness of the place, presence of local partner organizations, previous staff experience and accessibility. A review of the IVPA member websites revealed significant references to tourism, and dramatic imagery and descriptions of places were widely utilized to attract volunteers. This research contributes to the emerging body of literature on volunteer tourism by examining the locational and place-orientated aspects of the industry. In a largely consumer-dependent segment of the NGO aid industry, destination is primary and place matters.

Key Words:

• Volunteer tourism
• NGOs
• location criteria
• place image

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Benjamin F. Timms at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.