Internet representations of voluntourism fail to effectively integrate tourism and volunteering

Abstract

Voluntourism as a form of philanthropic tourism has become an increasingly popular research topic but there is a paucity of literature on the complex interplay between voluntourism and the internet. Specifically, there is sparse evidence on how the internet mediates ideas and representations of voluntourism. Building on prior research in the information search field, we examine the online representation of voluntourism in South Africa – a popular destination for voluntourists. Querying a popular search engine using a combination of keywords, we retrieved 600 web pages, which were stored and analysed using a predefined codebook. We employ social representation theory as an analytical tool for interpreting the retrieved search engine content. Results indicate three distinct clusters: the first is related to the volunteering experience itself, the second focuses on the touristic experience, and the third encompasses the voluntourism journey as a whole. These clusters reveal a misleading representation of voluntourism in the online space: voluntourism is predominantly represented as a cultural experience, with a strong presence of its key components (i.e. tourism and volunteering) and only a weak holistic view that integrates the two. In light of these findings, we conclude that internet representations of voluntourism do not integrate tourism and volunteering impact fully, which counteracts effective marketing of the industry. These results help voluntourist organisations in South Africa and internationally to improve their online targeting mechanisms to promote their services more accurately.

摘要

义工旅游作为慈善旅游的一种形式, 已经成为一个越来越受欢迎的研究课题, 但是关于义工旅游与互联网之间复杂的互动关系的文献却很少。具体地说, 关于互联网如何调解义工旅游的理念和表现方式, 还缺乏证据。在先前信息搜索领域研究的基础上, 我们研究了南非义工旅游的在线表现形式, 南非是一个受义工旅游者欢迎的旅游目的地。使用关键字组合查询一个流行的搜索引擎, 我们检索了600个网络页面, 这些页面使用预定义的代码本存储和分析。我们使用社会表征理论作为分析工具来解释检索到的搜索引擎内容。研究结果表明, 义工旅游具有三个明显的集群:第一个与义工旅游体验本身有关, 第二个侧重于旅游体验, 第三个聚类涉及义工旅程的整体。这些集群揭示了义工旅游在网络空间中的误导性表现:义工旅游主要表现为一种文化体验, 其关键组成部分(即旅游和义工服务)的存在性很强, 而将两者结合起来的整体观较弱。根据这些研究结果, 我们得出结论, 互联网上的义工旅游表现并没有有效地将旅游和义工服务结合起来, 这阻碍了该行业的有效营销。这些结果有助于南非及国际义工旅游组织改进他们的在线定位机制, 以更准确地推广他们的服务。

Keywords:

• Volunteering
• tourism
• voluntourism
• internet
• South Africa
• social representation theory
• information search
• online domain

关键词:

• 义工服务；旅游；义工旅游；互联网； 南非；社会表征理论； 信息搜索；在线领域

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Table 1. Variables for corpus classification.

Table 2. Clusters description.

Table 3. Lemmas in cluster 1 (The volunteering experience).

Table 4. Lemmas in cluster 2 (a tourism experience: what to see and what to do).

Table 5. Lemmas in cluster 4 (a holistic view of voluntourism).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alessandro Inversini is Associate Professor in Marketing at Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, HES-SO (University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland). Dr. Inversini is an expert in marketing communication, digital communication and digital marketing with extensive academic and industry experience.

Isabella Rega is Principal Lecturer and deputy director of CEMP – Centre of Excellence in Media Practice, at Bournemouth University (UK). Isabella's research focuses on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) with application in the field of learning, health and tourism.

Izak van Zyl obtained a PhD in Communication Science from the Università della Svizzera italiana in 2013. He is currently an Associate Professor of Transdisciplinary Studies at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. Izak has published extensively and is interested in the research areas of e-tourism, digital technology and culture.