Volunteer tourism: its role in creating conservation awareness

Abstract

This paper explores the perceptions of the impact that volunteer tourism has on the conservation awareness of non-volunteer tourists at the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The ENP is a privately owned sanctuary that rehabilitates injured and abused elephants and relies on tourism and volunteer tourism for its upkeep. Data for this study were obtained through the use of self-administered questionnaires administered to 200 participants during both their pre-visit and post-visit at the ENP. Results showed that after spending time at the park, visitors' awareness about volunteer tourism increased. Participants felt that volunteer tourism increases awareness about conservation issues and volunteering, makes a considerable contribution to conservation, and brings necessary funding to conservation projects. Furthermore, non-volunteer tourists also expressed an interest in volunteering at the ENP, volunteering at home, and donating money to animal conservation organisations. The model of volunteer tourism utilised by the ENP was thus shown to be an effective tool for creating awareness about domestic elephant conservation issues in non-volunteer tourists.

Keywords:

• volunteer tourism
• elephant conservation
• awareness
• environmental education
• Thailand

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Research Council of Thailand for allowing them to conduct this study. They also thank the Elephant Nature Park for their support and for allowing them to share their volunteer tourism conservation model with the rest of the world.