Chapter Three discussed how globalisation has progressively changed the way people live. As a result of advances in technologies many people around the world have been drawn closer together. People can now fly across to the other side of the world in a matter of hours or talk to people via video-link in a matter of seconds. These changes have also made a significant impact on the tourism industry. People are now able to travel to almost any destination they wish to go to with relative ease and can even arrange their travel adventures from the comfort of their own homes. The shopfront travel agent is fast becoming redundant as individuals can now contact tourism providers directly via the World Wide Web. A ‘globalised world’ means that the tourism industry must anticipate the changing demands of travellers and, in order to remain relevant in a competitive marketplace, provide products that keep pace with the evolving market. These changing needs of travellers can be linked, to some extent, to peoples’ need to enhance their cultural capital in an uncertain and competitive globalised world.
Just as the theories and practices of development have shifted over time, so too have those of tourism studies.469 In fact, the discussions taking place in relation to tourism in developing countries have evolved in a comparable way to those of development studies. For both development and tourism theory, the imperative has moved from one based solely on economics to one that also accounts for social, cultural and environmental perspectives. This move has been driven by a growing morality amongst stakeholders that requires socio- economic change to be sustainable. These changes are reflected in the initiatives being promoted by both the tourism and development industries. Initiatives like sustainable development and ‘pro-poor tourism’, aim to
improve conditions for poor regions of the world, while at the same time seeking to nullify negative impacts. These changes have not been solely driven by experts working in these fields, but also by the demands of more informed individuals. This is evident in the way demands of tourists, together with societal changes, have evolved significantly since the first mass tourists of the mid-nineteenth century, and continue to do so.
The majority of tourists today are ‘mass tourists’, opting to travel in ‘safe mode’ through the organised package holiday and the all-inclusive resort.470 There are, however, tourists seeking a more individualised journey that separates them from the mainstream. Many young people, in particular, seek adventure and challenge as part of a travel experience. There is appeal in ‘roughing it’ in order to experience what they perceive as the reality of a place:
I am as off the beaten path as one can get when it comes to travelling. My interest is in experiencing the authentic culture and true nature of a place as opposed to visiting typical tourist destinations. (Caryn, 9 November 2009)471
Other individuals are driven to seek experiences that involve risk and danger as part of their adventure:
I had friends saying things like, ‚You’re crazy, you are never going to come back.‛ Thinking I would be kidnapped and killed or something. < that’s the whole point of travelling to such a place for me.
(Richard)472
The search for adventure and challenge is reflected in the marketing slogans of alternative tourism options, like those used to sell volunteer tourism. The way in which volunteer tourism is marketed creates desire for the ‘exotic other’ through the promise of an ‘authentic’ engagement with developing
470 Mike Robinson and Marina Novelli, ‚Niche Tourism: an introduction‛ in Niche Tourism: Contemporary issues, trends and cases, ed. Marina Novelli (Oxford and Burlington: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005), 1 – 2.
471 Caryn, quoted in Lara Week, ‚I am not a tourist: Aims and implications of ‘Traveling’,‛ Tourist Studies 0, 0 (2012): 3.
communities. Marketing strap-lines or slogans appeal to potential volunteer tourists with the promise of opportunities for adventure:
Volunteer abroad < It provides an opportunity to help less fortunate women and children while immersing yourself in the culture of an exotic destination.473
A volunteer holiday could be your next great adventure!474 <your compassion, skills and energy will be channelled into a rewarding and challenging experience.475
Tourism has evolved over time to both advance and cater to tourist desires. In fact, tourism has evolved to a point where almost anything and everything can be manipulated to become desirable as a tourism product; cooking, sport, art, slums, are just some of the everyday occurrences that have been packaged to attract and satisfy tourist demands.476 As pointed out in Chapter Three, western societies are increasingly being shaped by consumption as they are hooked into the commoditisation of almost anything and everything. Volunteering as part of a holiday has also become one of the desirable consumer leisure products.
Chapters One and Two of this thesis provided an analysis of the external influences that have enabled volunteer tourism to flourish today, while Chapter Three provided insight into how the impacts of globalisation have influenced individuals to sign up to a volunteer tourism experience. This chapter continues this theme; not only have the impacts of globalisation influenced individuals to locate ways to ‘stand out from the crowd’, but they have also led individuals to seek an escape from their complicated day-to-day
473 Anon., ‚What women want: travel ideas for women,‛ Escape Supplement (Hobart: Sunday Tasmanian, 4 March 2012).
474 Volunteer Holidays, www.volunteerholiday.com.au, Accessed 12 April 2012. 475 Projects Abroad, www.projects-abroad.com, Accessed 2 March 2012.
476 For example, see: Culinary tourism – Gourmet Safaris, www.gourmetsafaris.com.au, Accessed 27 September 2013; Slum tourism – Reality Tours, Mumbai,
www.realitytoursandtravel.com, Accessed 27 September 2013; Sport tourism – Premium Sports Tours, www.sporttours.com.au, Accessed 27 September 2013; Art tourism – Artours,
lives. Tourists have increasingly changed their desires to a point where many now want to locate a simpler, more ‘authentic’ holiday experience. Volunteer tourism is one tourism product that meets this desire. Although initially linked to the charity sector, this type of volunteerism has been firmly placed as a tourism product within the scholarly literature.
This chapter frames volunteer tourism as a tourism product in order to understand how a volunteering concept blossomed into the tourism phenomenon it is today. To do so, first, an examination takes place as to how tourism in general has evolved. This provides the historical context of tourism and how innovations have enabled tourism to expand to mass proportions. Integrated into this section is also an evaluation of how the ‘massification’ of tourism has impacted on tourist destinations. It is, arguably, the detrimental impacts of mass tourism and globalisation that have led to the introduction of ‘alternative’ tourism products as a means of combating concerns. Volunteer tourism is one of these alternatives.
As noted above, the concept of volunteering as part of a holiday was initially advanced by the charity sector, which, similar to the tourism and HE sectors, has faced pressures as a result of societal changes and demands. The last section of this chapter draws on the origins of the volunteer tourism concept and reveals how the charity sector has intersected with tourism in order to compete in the global environment. A connection exists between the tourism industry and the non-government sector and, in particular, NGOs appear to play a vital role in the volunteer tourism relationship. NGOs are regularly the underpinning conduit between host and volunteer tourist and, therefore, research focusing on NGO involvement deserves exploration. At present there is little acknowledgement by the tourism industry of the NGOs role in the tourism venture. Although volunteer tourists are arguably seeking an
‘authentic’, unmediated experience between themselves and local communities, in reality, what they often receive is a mediated one.477