Understanding the Motives and Benefits of Volunteer Vacationers Essay Example for Free

pickings into custody the Motives and Benefits of offer up Vacati 1rs EssayWith the growing shorten of put up passs, query has been warranted in regard to projecting the motivational f enactmentors of unmarrieds who move into in much(prenominal) blockadeeavors. With this grounds, the goal is to increase these conk appear offerings in the industry, which result bring build a stylus appreciation amid horti refinings. This composition examines different proceed motivation detailors for virtu solelyy mavin who chooses to use part of their eliminate combat-ready in proffer or humanitarian activities. Con spotring that mission often has con nonations of a religious purpose, the excogitate chokeling with a purpose brings on even more signifi corporationce as this concept expands. To take c be travel motivation in cosmopolitan, a variety of scales and theories sustain been re faceed. Maslow, Dann, Iso-Ahola, Plog and Pearce atomic number 18 some inc luded in the Literature follow. A qualitative revolve about conclaveing and semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. The analysis of the data revealed that four-spot main points for wherefore tribe traveled with a purposeemerged. Cultural immersion was a strong objective the entrust to give back the comradery that occurs on offer up holidays and the fourth theme underline on family. Non-verbal colloquy and stick to occurs at several directs with the local muckle and family members. This is a skilful example of cultivating peace finished hobbleistry.Keywords offer up touristry, travel motivation parts, improvements, impactsIntroductionThe concept of inform touristry is a growing trend in the touristry industry and is show uping to draw attention from investigateers and marketers alike (Wearing, 2003). In the United States, for instance, a capacious variety of organisations offer offer up spends. They vary from tour operators to non-pr ofit organisations. One of the longest published guides to these organisations, proffer Vacations, by Bill McMillon et al., listed bring home the bacond 75 such organisations in its first edition in 1987 (Campbell, 1999). In its freshlyest edition, published in 2003, the number of organisations increased to 275. These organisations offer a wide spectrum of offer pass effs. propose pass terms range from local to regional to global r to each one. put up spend costs range from $ light speed and under to $3000 and above, with project length from under one week to six months or more. bandage summer appears to be the most predominant travel season, at that place argon packages and programmes resultd in all seasons. Analysing how an organisation positions itself inside the voluntary tourism sector may reveal itemors that influence a latent tourists organisational choice. The organisational personas of decl are oneself vacation follow up suppliers are comprised of a mix of non-profit organisations and for-profit tour operators. Some examples 1368-3500/05/06 0479-19 $20/0are Cross-Cultural Solutions (www.crosscultur in like mannerlutions.org), The Ameri merchantman Hiking Society (www.ameri lavatoryhiking.org), and Earthwatch (www.earthwatch. org).Types of projects offered for tenders vary widely and include agriculture, archaeology, biotic union development, conservation, construction, education and memoriseing, environmental protection and look into, technical assistance, historic preservation, medical checkup and dental, drub camps. The nature of put up vacation offerings appear to be closely allied with the organisations respective missions and mandates. For instance, Ambassadors for Children (AFC), a not-for-profit charit equal organisation ground in Indianapolis, Indiana, offers global volunteer opportunities by providing trip up opportunities for hands-on interaction with disadvantaged children of the world, balanced by opport unities for sightseeing and experiencing the native culture of the destination (www. ambassadorsforchildren.com). AFC has facilitated volunteer activities for passengers change of location to destinations like Mexico, Cuba, the Domini bottom Republic, Kenya, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Alaska, Vietnam, Belize, Guatemala, Native American Reservations, and other(a) communities in need. humanness world-wide adjudicates to eliminate poverty housing and home little(prenominal)ness from the world. Volunteers build houses together in partnership with families in need. world-wide Volunteers offer opportunities that include teaching conversation English, nurturing at-risk infants and children, renovating and painting community buildings, assisting with healthcare, and natural resource projects. Other organisations are geared more towards ecotourism such as Catalina Island Conservancy and Wilderness Volunteers, twain(prenominal) giving back by dint of stewardship of organising and promotin g volunteer services. The commonaltyality of the volunteer vacation suppliers appears to be the singularity of volunteering theme- accented experiences that reinforce organisations general mission. Despite the growing popularity of volunteer tourism, systematic academician research in this work, particularly from the perspectives of the volunteer vacationers, is still in its infancy stage. advance research appears to suggest that volunteer tourism can take two different diversenesss based on participants mindsets the volunteer-minded versus the vacation-minded (Brown Morrison, 2003). The volunteer-minded individuals tend to devote most or all of their vacation condemnation to volunteer activities at the destination. Volunteerism is the commutation smell for them. This type of volunteer tourism is often called a mission or service trip.The back engineer of volunteer tourism takes on a lighter undertone where the individual is largely vacation-minded, solely spends a small portion of the vacation on volunteer work at the destination. The term VolunTourism refers to this type of tourism experience where a tour operator offers travellers an opportunity to participate in an optional digression that has a volunteer component, as surface as a cultural exchange with local plenty. These skeleton encounters arrive at often proved to be the bring out of the individuals vacations. This latter ricochet of volunteer tourism has gained popularity among tourists. dapple this classification scheme takes a simplistic speak to, it provides a baseline for typology development of volunteer tourists. While on that point has been increasing research on volunteerism which sheds insights on motivational and destination choice factors of the volunteerminded service trip participants, genuinely(prenominal) little research has been conducted on the vacation-minded volunteer tourists. thither is lack of conceptualisation and fundamental understanding of wherefore individuals take part in volunteer work dappleon a vacation trip. What motivates them? What benefits do they evoke from the volunteer experience? What are the highlights of the volunteering experience? How do the volunteer activities influence their general vacation experience and satisfaction? As a result, more research is warranted to fully understand this growing form of volunteer tourism.The boil down of this research was on the vacation-minded volunteer vacationers. The purpose of this study was to examine the motives that receive vacationers to participate in some form of volunteer or humanitarian activities charm on a waste vacation trip and the benefits that the volunteer tourists derive from the experience. This study in like manner sought to broker the link amid motivations for the general form of tourism and those for the volunteer vacationing. The outcome of this research was expected to contri howevere to better understanding of the destination choices and tour ism experiences sought, thus bearing important implications for organisations that are targeting this particular market instalment.Literature ReviewThe literature review of this study was intended to provide some con text editionual background for the research. It centred roughly two key components ofvolunteer vacation the tourism component and the volunteer component. more(prenominal) particularisedally, it dealt with the general leisure travel motivations and how they pertain to and interplay with volunteer tourism.Motivational scalesTo understand travel motivation, a variety of scales and theories perplex been put earlierd and empirically tried and true in tourism literature. The importance of motivation in tourism is kinda obvious. It acts as a origination that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). Many researchers wear used motivational speculation to try to interpret the motivations of tourists. On the premise that motivations derive from a real or sensed need, it is excusable to analyse tourist choices of destinations and activities as a consequence of need deficiency (Burns Holden, 1995). Maslows hierarchy of necessitate self-actualisation, esteem inevitably, love needs, safety needs, and physiological needs forms the basis for un slight development and applications to understand travel doings and demand for tourism (Maslow, 1954, 1970). The decision to visit a destination is a complex dental amalgam of needs, motivating an individual to set and preliminaryitise goals in a belief that achieving these will satisfy the perceived needs. One of the main reasons for the popularity of Maslows hierarchy of needs is probably its simplicity (Hudson, 1999).This hierarchy could be tie in to the travel industry in the sense that unless individuals have their physiological and safety needs met, they are less likely to be interested in travelling the world to make a difference. Self-actualisation can, in fact, be consid ered the end or goal of leisure (Mill Morrison, 2002). Vacations offer an opportunity to re-evaluate and discover more about the self, to act out ones self- kitchen range as a way of modifying or correcting it. Echoing Maslow, Pearce (1982, 1993) suggested that travel behaviour reflected a hierarchy of five levels of travel motives. The five levels of the cash in ones chips Career Ladder are liberalization stimulation relationship self-esteem/development and fulfillment. As with a career at work, great deal start at different levelsand are likely to change levels during their smell period. Pearce explicitly recognised that tourists travel motivation can be self- acquireed or other-directed they do not always seek the comparable type of fulfillment from travel, and that people can descend as well as ascend on the ladder. To what extent tourists do so from one trip to the next, or whether this only occurs over longer time periods, is not quite as clear (Oppermann, 2000).Classi fying tourists into different typologies is an approach to link psychological motives to behaviour. The earliest model that forms the basis of tourism typology theory was established by Stanley Plog (1974). He constructed a cognitive-normative model based upon psychographic types. At one end of the continuum are psychocentric tourists and at the other end allocentric tourists. The allocentrics are explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and unswayed (by tourists) destinations. Middle-centrics are likely to display characteristics of a limited adventurer, entirely they want home comforts. It is this stem that re infixs the troop tourist market. Psychocentrics dislike destinations that offer unfamiliarity or insecurity. It is suggested that the psychocentric is dominated by safety needs.Dann (1977) made a significant contri bution in suggesting a two-tiered scheme of motivational factors the push and the pull. The push factors social-psychological motives that d rive the require to travel. The pull factors are remote factors that affect where a person travels to fulfilthe identified needs or desires. Dann suggested that anomie and ego-enhancement were the basic underlining reasons for travel. Crompton (1979) concur with Danns basic idea of push and pull motives but went further to identify nine motives for travel. They werethe escape from a perceived mundane environmentexploration and military rating of selfrelaxationprestigeregressionenhancement of kinship relationshipsfacilitation of social interactionnovelty and education.He classified the first seven motives as push factors, and the last two as pull factors. in that location was no mention of the need for the authenticity of the destination. Mayo and Jarvis (1981) suggested that travel motivations could be divided into four categories personal motivations such as rest, cultural motivations such as the desire for sack outledge, interpersonal motivations such as the desire to meet p eople, and status and prestige motivations such as the desire for recognition. In 1983, Beach and Ragheb developed a model called the Leisure Motivational Scale, which sought to summarise motivators into four components, based on the work of Maslow. The four types of components were in discernectual, social, competence-mastery, and stimulus-avoidance.The most recent motivational theories are founded on in truth complex synergisticmodels, which are based on personal and situational factors (Graumann, 1981 Schmalt, 1996). Behaviours are increasingly associated with life satisfaction, or perceived quality of life (Kernan Unger, 1987). Kernan and Domzal(2001) swear that people express who/what they are, to themselves and to others, by engaging in actionleisure activities. Swarbrooke and Horner (2003) believe the main factors find out an individual tourists motivation are probably personality, lifestyle, past experience, past life, perceptions and image. Changes which occur in an ind ividuals life stage may similarly have an impact on travel motives. Having a child, an increase or reduction in income, worsening health, and changing expectations or experiences as a tourist are circumstances that will affect motivation. Swarbrooke and Horner stated that no tourists are likely to be influenced by just one motivator. They are more likely to be affected by a number of them at any one time. Bello and Etzel (1985) investigated the role of novelty in pleasure travel.They argued that people with a low level of rousing in their daily routines seek a higher level of arousal in their vacation (a novel trip), whereas those people who lead a hectic, fast-paced life with frequent problems and challenges seek vacations that provide a minimum of stimulation and/or a familiar environment. Similarly, Wang (2000) emphasisedthat holidaymaking is an institution of escape. It is license from the modernised mode of existence that is associated with rigid schedules, deadening routine s, and stressful deadlines. stack on holiday have entry into an alternative track of tempos and rhythms. They have freedom to change. The motivation to travel is to have a specific lifestyle separate from the routines of daily life. Understanding tourism motivation is important. It acts as a trigger that sets off all the events involved in travel (Parrinello, 2002). In other words, it represents the whys and the wherefores of travel in general, or of a specific choice in particular. The extensive literature on leisure travel motivation provides a solid theoretical background and some guidelines for studying the volunteer vacation phenomenon in this general tourism motivational context.Volunteering and volunteer vacationsVolunteering has been a buzzword for some time for many socially oriented individuals both in the US and throughout the world. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 63.8 million people volunteered from kinsfolk 2002 to September 2003, an almost 7% increas e from the previous year. Women are more likely than men to volunteer, and individuals in the midst of the ages of 35 and 44 years old make up the largest group of volunteers (Kellicker, 2004). Stebbins defines volunteering as un-coerced help offered every formally or informally with no or, at most, token pay done for the benefit of both the people and the volunteer. Similarly, other definitions of volunteering have included the recognition that volunteers are those who provide assistance, or buckshee service, usually for the benefit of the community (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1986). Others emphasise the characteristics of the action perceived as freely chosen, without monetary gain and generally aimed at helping others (Stebbins, 1982, 1992 Van Til, 1979).In terms of the volunteering process, the American model, proposed by Leopold (2000) starts with what is needed and then recruits volunteers to do the work. In Europe there is a membership tradition where everything star ts with the members. It is up to the members to decide what to do. Regardless, volunteering has been viewed as beneficial to the well-being of thevolunteers (Cnaan et al., 1996 Stebbins, 1982 Thoits Hewitt, 2001). Volunteering gives participants asense of purpose, provokes serious contemplation, encourages concern for others, provides the opportunity to further an interest, and generates a sense of deep personal outcome (Stebbins Graham, 2004). Stebbins (1992) suggests that volunteering bears durable benefits for the volunteer such as self-actualisation, self-enrichment, refreshment or renewal of self, feelings of act, enhancement of self-image, self-expression, social interaction and belongingness. Thoits and Hewitt (2001) empirically examine how volunteering affects six different dimensions of well being levels of happiness life satisfaction self-esteem sense of control over life fleshly health and depression. Their research reveals that people who are in better physical an d mental health are more likely to volunteer, and conversely that volunteer work is good for both mental and physical health. heap of all ages who volunteer are happier and experience better physical health and less depression. Broad (2003) suggested that volunteers were more open to positive attitude changes when unfastened to a different culture, which may explain why volunteers frequently reported becoming more broad-minded, core, and relaxed, and less selfish and psychocentric as outcomes of volunteering, along with a changed way of go throughing at the world. Stebbins(1982, 1992, 2004) has conducted some pioneering work in conceptualising volunteerism in the context of leisure. thither continues to be a lot research in regard to serious leisure volunteers and their motivation to volunteer as well as the fulfilment they derive from their diverse pursuits. Stebbins believes that the motivational reasons and socioeconomic conditions vary vastly with different demographic ca tegories of people taking up volunteering.Each category is rather differently cause, but the twin motives of altruism and self-interest are common to all categories. In his consideration of serious leisure, Stebbins points out that it is an important part of peoples lives in its relation to personal fulfilment, identity enhancement and self-expression (1982). Since volunteering in many cases involves some form of travel, the phenomenon has been examined closely in the context of tourism. The term volunteer tourism refers to tourists who volunteer in an organised way to undertake holidays that involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into aspects of society or environment (Wearing, 2001). Volunteer tourism has also been viewed as a form of alternative tourism or ecotourism emphasising the sustainable, responsible and educational undertone of the activity (Moskowitz, 1995 Wearing, 2001). Wheelan (1991), for instance, suggested that ecotourists represent a potential army of recruits with free time and money to spend on sustainable development efforts. Further, volunteer tourism experience has been viewed as a contextual platform for the intertwining interactions among the ecotourism element, the volunteer element, and the serious leisure element (Stebbins, 1982, 1992 Wearing, 2001). travelling overseas as a volunteer appears to have begun around 1915 (Beigbeder, 1991 Clark, 1978 Darby, 1994 Gillette, 1968). Although most of the literature in this field has focused on profiling the volunteering tourist ( Brown Morrison, 2003 Wearing, 2003), there has been increasing interest in understanding vacation volunteers motives and the benefits derived. Exploratory research on volunteer vacationers suggests that their motivations appear to be similar to long-term volunteers, but the relative shelter of various factors can differ, withself-actualisation being very important for shor t-term volunteers (Gazley, 2001). Brown and Morrison (2003) propose that a volunteer vacation helps heal corporate burnout by providing the individual with a sense of accomplishment outside the workplace.The role of peace appeared to be other discussed benefit. And, according to Bud Philbrook (pers comm), president and CEO of orbiculate Volunteers, volunteer service engenders hope and friendship, both of which are crucial to waging peace The more people volunteer all over the world and make friends with local people, the more peaceful the world will be. However, alongside service trips or mission trips, where the primary purpose of the trip is volunteering and individuals spend the majority of the trip participate in volunteer work at the destination, there is also a lighter form of volunteer vacation that is gaining popularity. Here, the main purpose of the trip remains largely as a leisurely vacation, but the tourists also spend a small component of their leisure time on volun teer work at the destination. This form of volunteer vacation, although not a new practice, has gained increasing popularity. Rather than taking up a trip just for volunteer work, these groups of individuals join leisure-oriented vacation packages that provide a volunteering component as part of the itinerary.Tourism theories and research have ranged from micro-social-psychologicalexplanations to macro-social explorations concerning the globalisation of tourist venues. Given the rise of volunteer tourism, tourism practitioners have begun to strategically incorporate volunteering activities into their product planning. Some market-sensitive travel companies are offering leisure tour packages with optional excursions that allow tourists to participate in volunteer work. However, empirical research for this type of volunteer vacation is very limited. Many questions remain to be answered. For instance, what motivates vacationers to spend part of their vacation working at the destination ? Are their motivations similar to the service trip or mission trip volunteers? What benefits do vacationers derive from participating in volunteer activities? And what are the highlights of the volunteer experience? Does the volunteer experience enhance the boilersuit vacation experience? This research, therefore, was aimed at further exploration of these important issues.Study ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were threefold. They were to discover (1) What are the motivational push factors that drive some leisure tourists to seek volunteer experience during their leisure trip? To what extent do these motives differ or coincide with the general tourism motives? (2) What are the perceived benefits that vacation tourists derive from participating in volunteering activities at the destination? To be more specific, what are the immediate impacts participacting has on the overall vacation satisfaction? To what extent does it transcend the temporal boundary and exert long-term influ ence on the individuals?MethodsThis research adopted focus group and in-depth personal interview approaches, sort of of a more vicenary approach such as structured surveys. The researchers believe this is an area of investigation that is at its exploratory stage. There are no proven measurements or theories for researching this particular phenomenon. In addition, unlike traditional quantitative research, focus group and in-depth personal interviews are centrally concerned with understanding attitudes rather than measuring them. In an academic sense, the goal of a focus group or personal interview is also to gain entranceway to more inclusive sets of feelings and emotions that a structured instrument could not capture. These research methods are more direct, sensitive, and interactive in nature in assessing attitudes, motivations and opinions. Thus, it was believed that qualitative research methods would facilitate better in-depth understanding of motivational factors of volunteer vacationers instead of merely obtaining the distant panoramic view through quantitative channels. It was hoped that that these approaches would draw out the motivational factors behind the top of mind opinions which is critical to understanding what is driving volunteer vacation. A focus group session was conducted in May 2004. The focus group was composed of nine people with ages ranging from 40 to 72 four males and five females.All were married. The focus group attendeeswere from a variety of life situations ranging from an engineer, healthcare consultant, and business concern owner, to a retiree, stay-home mother, and community volunteer. While university education appeared to be the norm for the group, the participants educational background varied by level from high school education to PhD. The diversity in backgrounds of the participants was intended to reveal different insights and opinions on the volunteer tourism issue. A few commonalities brought the group together. The y all had extensive leisure travel experiences. They had a shared interest and passion for travel. All had participated in volunteer work while on a leisure trip. The volunteer experience ranged from visiting an orphanage and volunteering at local hospitals to participating in home ground for Humanity projects. The volunteering experiences occurred during leisure vacation trips but the volunteering locations varied from domestic destinations such as new-made Mexico and Alaska to external destinations such as Guatemala, Cuba, and Brazil. The focus group participants were asked to share their ideas. The discussion centred around three issues (1) Why would an individual set about involved with using part of his or her vacation for volunteering activities? What are his or her motivations? (2) What are the highlights of the volunteer experience?(3) What are the benefits and impacts of the vacation volunteering experiences? In order to separate motivational factors from beneficial fac tors resulting from volunteer vacation experience, we conducted a help focus group session thatwas made up of three males and three females who were first-time participants of volunteer vacation. This focus group was conducted in June 2004, before the individuals departed for their first volunteer vacation trip. Both focus group sessions were video and audio-taped. Transcripts were made by a graduate research assistant who was also present at both focus group sessions. Following the focus group sessions, the researchers conducted 10 in-depth personal interviews with individuals who had participated in volunteer work on a vacation trip. The interview sessions lasted approximately 30 minutes each and were audio-taped and subsequently transcribed. The purposes of supplementing the focus group sessions with in-depth interviews were three fold (1) it was tangle that in-depth personal interview allows more time and space for personal reflection on the part of the interviewee (2) it was logistically flexible to include and capture the viewpoints of the younger individuals that felt underrepresented in the focus group sessions and (3) employing a multi-method approach (focus group plus in-depth personal interview), researchers could cross-validate the themes and patterns of the findings from the focus group sessions. Based on the review of literature in volunteerism and volunteer tourism, as well as the results of the focus group session, the personal interviews took on a semi-structured format with a list of 15 open and semi-open questions that centred on motivational factors and impacts of volunteer vacation. All 25 study subjects were members of Ambassador Travel Club, the largest travel club in the US, and were recruited to participate in the study on a voluntary basis.The researchers considered different approaches for the text data analysis. school text analysis software tools such as CATPAC were initially considered. However, the researchers felt that the co mputer-aided, more quantifying approach does not face to handle well the complexity of language context, the dynamics of the group interaction and the richness of relationships revealed in the text data. As a result, a decision was made to use the moretraditional approach of content analysis. Both researchers analysed the transcripts simultaneously but independently. The results were later compared and compiled together. This effort, while more time consuming, resulted in a more consistent interpretation of the text data and increased the reliability of the study.ResultsThe motivator Why volunteer while on vacation?Using the multi-method approach, four major motivational themes appear to take shape concerning why individuals volunteer while on a leisure trip cultural immersion, giving back, seeking camaraderie and seeking educational and bonding opportunities.Cultural immersionWhen asked, Why volunteer while on vacation? it was found that being able to physically and emotionally im merse oneself in the local culture and community is a strong motivational factor. It was a common sentiment from the research subjects that participating in volunteer work provided the travellers with invaluable opportunities to immerse themselves in a local culture to a degree that would not be possible without the first-hand interaction with the local peopleand community through volunteer work. These volunteering experiences enable travellers to experience and learn beyond the typical tourism platform, where one is surrounded by staged settings typified by glorious beaches and fancy resorts, to see the people as they really are, their lives and their living environment. It appeared that volunteer travellers tended to attach strong value to seeking and experiencing authenticity of a place. They also demonstrated their insatiable curiosity about other people and places and their belief that working and interacting with the local people and communities leads to opportunities to beco me immersed in local culture and connect with the local people in a more profound way. As a result, long-term relationships and friendships were built amidst the hosts and the visitors as testified by the participants Im a doer, you k at a time. I like to do stuff for people and it gave me a disaster to do that. And also, you know, as other people said, to really get immersed into the community and I find when you work with people you really can see the real aspects of the population there much more so than, you know, in a hotel lobby. And so on even if you are friendly and surmount and so on, you just dont get to really know what peoples lives are like and this gave us such an opportunity to do that and get acquainted and make relationships.Giving back and making a differenceThe second motivational theme that emerged was the desire to give back and reach out to the less privileged. Many participants felt that they do well in life and wanted to give back. Spending time to help p eople in need is a good way to just do that. A trip with a purpose is appealing to participants because it offers them a chance to help with the less fortunate instead of pure self-enjoyment. It appears individuals who are seeking a purpose-driven life as put by one of the focus group participants, are drawn to the notion that volunteer vacation serves as a means to give back to society.So I decided to do it because I do well in life and I like to give back. I enjoy doing that kind of work and so I think my main reason was its time to start giving back again.My daughter and I went. My save and I have been lucky enough to travel a lot, and I just got to thinking that its really nice to go just and lay on the beach and have people lodge on you and I really enjoy it, dont get me wrong. And we also enjoyed immersing yourself in the culture through taking bicycle trips but it just seemed to be kind of selfish, so I thought by chance it would be nice to be a little unselfish. quest cam araderieA terce motivational theme attests to the camaraderie that is sought on volunteer vacations. For well-travelled individuals, these trips bring together the most gratifying groups, according to half of the study subjects. Meeting and interacting with people from the said(prenominal) travel group who share common interests and values appear to be major motives behind volunteer vacation. Many interviewees and focus group members concurred that travelling with people with similar minds and making friends certainly added value and enjoyment to the overall leisure trip experience. workings with fellow group members in the volunteerAnd you know you are working side by side with a lot of good people. It also shows other cultures that Americans are willing to give in a physical way, in terms of acquire down and dirty. Folks from Guatemala were taken back by the fact we were working. I think it is just another way of making ourselves ambassadors for the good people in our society. Seeking camaraderie appeared to be a sentiment voiced by the majority of the first focus group as a stronger motivator for volunteer vacations. However, considering the first focus group participants were composed of individuals who had various levels of prior volunteer vacation experiences, the researchers were concerned that seeking camaraderie could be attributed more to a benefit factor than a motivational factor. That is, would individuals actually choose volunteer vacation because they anticipate building new friendships or was it a benefit realised in retrospect resulting from the vacation volunteer experience? The researchers conducted a second focus group with six individuals prior to their first volunteer vacation. The second focus group appeared to nourish that meeting with and having a good time with people of similar interests was one of the motivational aspects that they were looking forward to. As one participant put it It is about blending good hard work and volunte ering with some fun activities wrapped around it and know that there will be some pretty peachy people doing the said(prenominal) thing.Seeking educational and bonding opportunities for childrenThe volunteer vacationers appear to be also motivated by the educational and family-bonding opportunities that volunteer vacation experience presents. In the case where volunteer vacationers travelled with their children, informants agreed that the volunteer experience was an opportunity for them to impart their value system to their children. They believed that the volunteer experience they shared with their children can teach children that there are people in the world who are less fortunate, that there is broad diversity in the world, and that material items should be of minimal importance. Informants also believe that the volunteer experience helps teach children the value of giving, an important component in life. It is sheer that participating in volunteer work with children while on vacation is perceived as having an educational component for the younger generation as testified by one participantWell, in conjunction with the obtaindaughter bonding quality time to spend with my daughter, the thing that appealed about Ambassadors for Children for me was that many of our children live in a privileged world compared to the rest of the world. And I wanted my daughter to understand the environment, the social issues, the lack of any kind of parenting that some of these children are exposed to, just to give her a better understanding of the world outside, of course, the sheltered environment that many of us live in. And Ambassadors for Children sort of fit that bill. It was something that I could actively participate in instead of serving on a committee. That attracted me to Ambassadors for Children initially andnow it is that I can have hands-on experience with the children and share those experiences with my family also. some other related, but distinct, motivation al factor is seeking better bonding opportunities with children. Volunteering together with children appears to be a very good interacting context for parents and their children and/orgrandchildren. For many interviewees and focus group members, it is very important to be able to spend quality time with loved ones, especially children or grandchildren, and taking a volunteer vacation together appears to enable them to achieve that goal. A volunteer experience builds a special shared experience with children, as echoed by one fatherInitially I became involved with Ambassadors for Children because Im a father and I have daughters. And there were so many things I could do with my son athletically. I coached sports. Im involved obviously in games and things with my son all the time. But for a father sometimes there are limits how he can interact with his daughters. So I wanted to look at something my daughter and I could do together other than dismission to the mall or going shopping o r going to the beach. So I looked into Ambassadors for Children and thats how I initially got involved in it.The benefits and impact of volunteer vacationsIt appears to be consensual among all participants that the volunteer component of the vacation became, in fact, the highlight of the total vacation experience This personal interaction with the family, and their obvious appreciation of having a home and having people that they didnt know willing to help them that made the whole experience.I think again that the self-realisation and the memories you bring back of what happened between you and the people that you met to me are wonderful. And you think of travel and the beautiful sites youve seen, but the kids faces are the most beautiful.I think the vacation was fun I just think it (the volunteer experience) was another element to bring to it that was even neater. It just gave you a little more culture and that puts you in direct touch with the people and that helps you talk to t hem a little more. It was a lot of fun.I think theres a great number of people who are looking for new experiences. In other words you can only lay on the beach so many times, you can only stay in nice hotel so many times and although thats good and its good toget away I think people many people are looking for new experiences and heres an opportunity for you to travel to have a vacation experience and at the same time take a small time out of that vacation experience and do something that is meaningful, and do something that last in your memory and do something that makes a difference.The volunteering component of the leisure vacation seems to have become a vacation experience enhancer in multiple ways. First, meeting and interacting with people with shared interests from the same travel group has added value tothe overall leisure trip experience. It was brought out repeatedly that participants genuinely enjoyed the interaction and group dynamics of their travel companies. This typ e of travel companionship and interaction appears to enhance the enjoyment of the overall leisure trip. Second, volunteer vacationers discovered that material needs were of minimal importance and the little things that happen such as the exchange of love, care, curiosity, understanding, and appreciation were the highlights of their trips. Third, in a broader sense, the volunteer vacationers became the ambassadors for their own country. The helping and commitment appeared to provide a window for international communities to understand the American people, projectingthe friendly, generous and helpful American image as was attested by one informant. . . . But I always want the children to know and understand that were from the US, that we represent American people that were being American interest there . . . People have done things for them that they didnt have to do. Theyve taken their time their money and their energy to help these people. And maybe some day that will make a differe nce. Maybe instead of someone having bad thoughts about the US they can remember there were people that came here for me and helped me from a dental standpoint, from a medical standpoint, from a clothing standpoint, or whatever, and maybe they wont have such a oppose bias towards the US like so many people do these days.When asked whether there were any abide benefits or impacts from their volunteer vacation experiences, the study participants also agree that the impact permeates beyond the vacation trip itself. A sense of self fulfilment and personal growth are among the most mentioned persistent makeYou go thinking you are going to help people makes their lives better. But you end up getting far more out of it than you put in. It is a real blessing. I dont know how to put it into words but it went above and beyond my expectations I guess. What I expected to get out of it and how it still affects me today three years later and my friend that went with me how its changed her lif e dramatically its just one of those things that blows me away when I look back it was just a beginning point for what I can see myself doing in the future and for her as well.Another common sentiment is that the shared volunteering experience appeared to have an enduring effect on enhancing family relationships. Well its helped me to in some ways to communicate with my children that the life that they have is a very privileged life and a lot of people dont have even the percentage of opportunity or life that theyre able to enjoy. I dont think children get that by seeing it on television, I think children have to have a personal relationship with particularly young children have to have personal experiences to help you communicate with them.The one thing that I do notice is we have a lot of stuff around the house. Weve imperturbable bits and pieces. But stuff that weve gotten on these trips has fairly prominent locations and all of it tends to say, ah . . . that was a neatexperienc e. They are reminders. Theres a Guatemalan embroidery here, and a Cuban picture there, and a picture from Brazil.Its a great shared experiences when you get back to, you know, talk about it. When we talked and shared pictures with friends and so on to remember the, you know even if we didnt always do the same thing. We were there at the same time and saw a lot of the same things and met a lot of the same people and had very much the same feelings. Thats a neat thing to share and compare.Many informants also emphasised the realisation of the stark differences in material life how privileged we are versus them. The transcending effect is especially apparent among the younger informants. In the individual in-depth interview sessions with individuals in their teens and early 20s, informants agreed that the volunteering experience went beyond their expectations for the trip, and wedged their lives in a profound way. Forinstance, several interviewees said that their future career choices would be influenced as a result of their volunteering experiences.It challenged me. It opened my eyes to other parts of the world. My passion for children and missionary work has grown. My friend who went with me is now in Uganda on a mission It just brings you back that basic humanity with everything else stripped away, we are just the same and that is exciting and encouraging. I see them in Gods eyes. Were all the same. We have the same needs, the same wants, the same desires and same fears. They want family just as much as I do.Discussions and ConclusionUsing qualitative focus group and personal interview approaches, this study examined the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism from the perspectives of vacationers who spend a small proportion of their trip volunteering at the destination. More specifically, we sought to understand what the underlying psychological factors are and whether they are similar to or different from two phenomena (1) volunteerism those o f pure missionary or service trips where individuals devote the entire or the majority of their time to volunteer work, and (2) mainstream tourism where individuals travel for pure leisure purposes. The goal of the research was to broker the linkages between volunteer vacation motives, mainstream tourism motives, and volunteerism travel motives. The findings of this research appear to suggest some similarities as well as differences between the volunteer-minded travellers and the vacationminded travellers. The motivations of the volunteer vacationers appear to be conforming to some degree to volunteering motives in general in such aspects as personal fulfilment, identity enhancement and self-expression (Stebbins, 1982, 1992, 2004), promoting peace (Philbrook, pers comm) and cultural exchange(Broad, 2003).However, this study also revealed factors that appear to be specific to the phenomenon of volunteer vacationing. For instance, volunteer vacationers appear to attach high values to the opportunities for educating children and bonding with family members. Seeking camaraderie also appears to be a strong sentiment that is reflected in both motivational and benefit discussionsamong the participants. Further, volunteer vacationers seem to be driven by sense of adventure and desires for exploration and novelty, that are not as prominent with the more serious volunteer travellers. Borrowing Plogs (1974) theorisation, the volunteer vacationers can also be labelled as allocentrics explorers and adventure seekers, who tend to choose remote and untouched destinations. While both groups have demonstrated certain altruistic motives, the notion of altruism for the volunteer vacationers is much less apparent. Using an ethnographic case study approach, Broad (2003) examined the relationship between volunteers, their volunteering experiences and the outcomes that eventuated. Broads study subjects were serious volunteers in Phuket, Thailand. His study found that just under two -thirds of volunteers were motivated by an altruistic desire to help, although other motives similar to the volunteer vacationers were also present such as working with similar people, or a desire to develop personality as a result of volunteering. Interestingly, serious volunteers also indicated that their volunteering was at least partly motivated by a desire to travel and a chance to experience a new culture.This study also revealed some intriguing patterns of the interplay between the general leisure travel motivation and motivational factors underliningvolunteer vacation. It appears that the motivational factors for volunteer vacation intertwine with multiple layers of general leisure vacation motivation. While volunteer vacationers demonstrate that there is a definite notion of self-actualisation and authenticity, the highest level of needs as per Maslows hierarchy of needs theory, the volunteer vacationers appear to also be potently motivated by lower-level factors such as love and social needs as well as learning needs. Another evoke observation is that the volunteer vacation motivational factors appear to follow the directive argument about self- and others-directed motivations, as proposed by Pearce (1982) in his travel career ladder model. This investigation showed that the motivational factors were largely driven from two different aspects self-directed acquaint, learn, feel better, self-actualise other-directed help, connect, understand. The benefits resulting from the volunteer vacation experience also seem to align with the directional argument. They can be grouped as self-enhancement (such as becoming a better person) and other-enhancement (such as imparting values on children).This study also adds a new dimension to this post-modern tourism phenomenon and is in line with trends that battalion tourism is in more of a spiritual search and a desire for travel opportunities that increase the sense of place. While the increasingly popular ec otourism experiences emphasise the notion of learning, environmental obligation and social responsibility, which breaks away from the mass commodified tourism products, volunteer vacations present an altruistic theme in which participants can make a difference and help others. What is the significance of spending only a small proportion of time volunteering during a holiday? The volunteer vacation purports an infusion of an ideological conflict from the market-driven priorities of mass tourism. This divergence, however unintentional, seems to converge well with the societal needs of the fast-paced, stress-driven contemporary world. Individuals are in fact increasingly using tourism, especially experiences with a strong spiritual notion, as a means of ameliorate their home life, rather than merely escaping from it. Thiscould explain the rapid growth of volunteer vacation as a travel phenomenon in recent years.The benefits derived from the volunteer vacation appear to be temporary o r enduring in nature. Temporary or immediate benefits could be having a higher level of satisfaction with the overall leisure trip as a result of the volunteering experience. The enduring benefit effects centre around the developments of both self and others, as well as social relationship enhancement. The social interactions pertaining to the volunteer vacation domain appear to enhance relationships in a multifaceted manner(1) Interacting with people from the destination community promotes mutual understanding and appreciation and friendship.(2) Interacting with travel group members with similar interests and values promotes friendship and peer bonding.(3) Interacting with family members, such as spouse and children, promotes healthier family relationships and tighter bonding.This research contributes to the tourism literature by brokering the linkages between the volunteering, volunteer vacationing, mass tourism vacationing and motivation to travel. The volunteer vacation phenomen on appears to bridge the altruistic motives of volunteering with the general commodified tourism experiences. In this regard, the outcome of this research also bears some practical implications for the tourism industry practitioners.Volunteer vacation seems to provide a new avenue for tourism satisfaction. As demonstrated in this research, this concept brings about a higher level of trip satisfaction for the participants. We are identifying a new and unique market segment that is neither a pure leisure trip nor a pure volunteer experience. Implementing this concept will create authentic cultural experiences unlike any other in the industry. This philosophy and practice of volunteer tourism can be linked to the mainstream tourism with its focus on market priorities. The outcome of this hybridised approach in the global marketplace of tourism can potentially generate new market dynamics and promises while enabling every traveller to be an ambassador for peace.The authors acknowledge t hat while this research presents an interesting snapshot of the emerging volunteer vacation phenomenon, the generalisability of the research outcome is limited, as it is based on a small sample from one organisation with qualitative methodologies such as focus groups and personal interviews. intimately more research is needed in this area to better attempt to understand the dimensionalities of the motivational and benefit factors of volunteer tourism and the interplay of mass tourism motives and volunteer motives. To achieve this goal and increase internal and external validities of the research findings, more stringent measurement scales will be developed based on the qualitative analyses and extensive literature review. 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