Voluntourism: the practice of volunteering in travel from the hospitality perspective

Abstract

Voluntourism is aimed at tourists who take part in trips, promoted by for-profit and non-profit compa­nies, to carry out voluntary work in various ways, both nationally and internationally. It is believed that the practice of voluntourism provides a favourable setting for hospitable experiences in which volun­teers can act with hospitableness in the same way as their hosts, so the main aim was to investigate the occurrence of hospitality and hospitable behaviour in the voluntourism experience. A qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study was conducted with data collected through semi-structured interviews with leaders of organisations specialising in voluntourism and volunteer tourists. As a result, we found traits that refer to hospitality in values expressed by voluntary activity, the motivation of volunteer tourists and their hospitality skills governed by the spirit or essence of genuine hospitality. It was identified that episodes of inhospitality or even hostility could occur due to the attitude of voluntour­ists, and the lack of structure or focus of specialised organisations.

Keywords
Hospitality; Hospitableness; Voluntourism; Voluntourists; Tourism