Fase I ¿Cómo vemos?

A notable model related to psychological motivations in tourism is the ‘Travel Career Pattern’, a later iteration of the ‘Travel Career Ladder’ that de-emphasises the latter’s linear, hierarchical nature. In developing the original ‘Travel Career Ladder’, Pearce (1988) proposed five hierarchical motivational levels based on Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (1943), namely (from the bottom): relaxation, stimulation, relationship, self- esteem and development, and fulfilment needs. The upper levels of this model are representative of the factors that drive the choices of tourists who view their trips as

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biographical expressions of their selves, maintaining congruence between their self- image and actions. However, the developmental nature of the ladder concept implies a linear progression along which tourists are expected to climb uni-directionally to reach the top rungs of self-esteem and fulfilment with each subsequent travel experience. Its key criticism lies in its neglect of a possible dynamism in psychology that may result in tourists advancing and reversing between rungs (Ryan 1998). The ‘Travel Career Pattern’ was developed in response to this criticism, emphasising a more egalitarian pattern of motivations and their structure over a more hierarchical approach. There are studies supporting the view that tourists with positive experiences pertaining to the higher rungs tend to be more satisfied with their overall experience than those with positive experiences pertaining to the lower rungs (Kim 1994; Pearce 1988). This amplification of satisfaction by the more experienced, and potentially more self-actualised tourist, has been shown to impact their revisitation intentions (Pearce 1988), and as will be explored in this thesis, may have implications for the behavioural intentions of volunteer tourists. Further, Pearce and Lee (2005) found that those who were more experienced tourists were more likely to declare host-site involvement as a motivation, while less experienced tourists were more likely to emphasise the higher order motivations as expressed in the Travel Career Ladder such as self-actualisation and self-development (Pearce 1988). These findings contradict the original Travel Career Ladder approach as the hierarchical model does not explain the dynamism of tourist motivations across a career of travel.

Aside from this focus on motivation, decision-making in destination choice and activity selection has been developed as a topic of research, particularly in the areas of logic and emotion (Goldstein 2011), while attitudes and satisfaction research continues to revolve around tourism products and experiences. Even within the field of satisfaction

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and experiential research, satisfaction can be examined from the tourist’s quality of experience perspective or the quality of service providers perspective (Ryan 2002a). This study attempts to examine expectations in the context of the tourist’s experience, combining disconfirmation assessments in the experiential, and not service provision, aspects of volunteer tourism.

The concept of travelling to a foreign environment is useful for understanding the implications of physical travel on the psychological examinations of travel. This short- term movement of individuals from a geographic area of familiarity into other regions is central to the concept of travel (Burkart & Medlik 1981). The physical aspect contributes to the host-guest perspective, particularly the interactions between hosts and guests in the foreign environment (Smith 1989). Host-guest interaction is central to the tourism experience, and may be favourable or unfavourable depending on the nature of the interaction. This has led to its exploration in the context of customer experience, such as in the psychographic matching of guests with hosts in the pursuit of customer service improvement (Tucker & Lynch 2005), mutual learning and understanding (Sin 2010) as well as the evolving dynamic of changing tourist demographics (Chan 2006). Just as the social psychology of leisure is inextricably linked to the social environment that is a part of its production, inevitably, this theme has been widely explored, particularly in relation to the gazes of the tourist and the host as regard to this shared activity (Smith 1989). In addition, research on attitudes has also taken on an added dimension in the exploration of residents’ attitudes towards the development of tourism, particularly because of the growing focus on community-based initiatives as a way of implementing sustainable tourism (Okazaki 2008; Pearce & Packer 2013). This evolution of perspectives in decision-making, attitudes and satisfaction towards compatibility and sustainability echoes the industry’s

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practices, which have shifted towards an emphasis on alternative tourism options (Weaver 2006; Trauer 2006; Yeoman, Munro & McMahon-Beattie 2006).

In examining tourism as a non-ordinary set of events and raising the consciousness of its deleterious effects over time, some of the context contributing to the growth of volunteer tourism has been discussed. While technological advances have contributed to the ability to travel, it is its subsequent affordability that has extended travel to the masses. The desire to escape from the everyday, explore the unknown, or pursue deeper interests has been the key to the growth of modern travel behaviour and choices (Weaver 2006). In the face of this growth, the push to minimise the negative effects of tourism has spawned a host of alternative tourism types, necessitating the exploration of consumer psychology to understand the motivations that affect tourists’ expectations, and consequently, their satisfaction and future intentions. In addition, the use of volunteer tourism as a means of self-expression used by those higher up the rungs of the Travel Career Ladder has also contributed to the popularity of volunteer tourism programs (Ong et al. 2014). Beyond the tourism trends which fuel this movement, volunteerism and its developments has also played a significant part in promoting participation in volunteer tourism. This will be explored in the next section.