IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v120y2015i2p577-600.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Local Impacts of Volunteer Tourism: Comparing Two Unique Approaches to Indicator Development

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Lupoli
  • Wayde Morse

Abstract

Volunteer tourism is a rapidly growing form of alternative travel and one of its central pillars consists of generating beneficial impacts in host destinations. However, few mechanisms have been proposed or developed to understand, identify or assess the impacts of volunteer tourism in host communities. One strategy to assess these impacts is by developing sociocultural, economic and environmental indicators. Literature on international development, social indicators and volunteer tourism suggests that indicator development should engage both host communities and volunteer tourism organizations (VTOs). This article presents an approach to accomplish this often difficult task. An online questionnaire solicited data from VTOs regarding indicators that they believe are most useful to understand the community impacts of their programs. Exploratory workshops in five host communities of volunteer tourism in Ecuador and Costa Rica generated additional indicators that are locally-relevant and appropriate. Data from these distinct approaches to indicator development are compared and contrasted to understand how they can be used to reflect the interests of both stakeholder groups. The compass of sustainability was used as a framework to guide indicator development for both the survey and the workshops and its potential to guide future initiatives is discussed. This research revealed the need to promote collaboration among VTOs and host communities to jointly develop indicators to ensure that volunteer tourism can address their mutual goals and needs. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Lupoli & Wayde Morse, 2015. "Assessing the Local Impacts of Volunteer Tourism: Comparing Two Unique Approaches to Indicator Development," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 577-600, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:120:y:2015:i:2:p:577-600
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-014-0606-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11205-014-0606-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-014-0606-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Matarrita-Cascante, 2010. "Changing Communities, Community Satisfaction, and Quality of Life: A View of Multiple Perceived Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 105-127, August.
    2. Kate Simpson, 2004. "'Doing development': the gap year, volunteer-tourists and a popular practice of development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 681-692.
    3. John Parkins & Richard Stedman & Jeji Varghese, 2001. "Moving towards local-level indicators of sustainability in forest-based communities: A mixed-method approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 43-72, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vicente Morales-Baños & Francisco José Borrego-Balsalobre & Arturo Díaz-Suárez & José María López-Gullón, 2023. "Levels of Sustainability Awareness in Spanish University Students of Nautical Activities as Future Managers of Sports and Active Tourism Programmes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Zeinab Asadpourian & Mehdi Rahimian & Saeed Gholamrezai, 2020. "SWOT-AHP-TOWS Analysis for Sustainable Ecotourism Development in the Best Area in Lorestan Province, Iran," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 289-315, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Felix N. Fernando & Dennis R. Cooley, 2016. "An Oil Boom’s Effect on Quality of Life (QoL): Lessons from Western North Dakota," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 11(4), pages 1083-1115, December.
    2. Sangram Keshari JENA & Aruna Kumar DASH, 2020. "Does Exchange Rate Volatility Affect Tourist Arrival In India: A Quantile Regression Approach," Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 20(2), pages 65-78.
    3. Wearing, Stephen & Beirman, David & Grabowski, Simone, 2020. "Engaging volunteer tourism in post-disaster recovery in Nepal," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Lo, Ada S. & Lee, Candy Y.S., 2011. "Motivations and perceived value of volunteer tourists from Hong Kong," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 326-334.
    5. Sharon McLennan, 2014. "Medical voluntourism in Honduras: ‘Helping’ the poor?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(2), pages 163-179, April.
    6. Adalberto Santos-Júnior & Fernando Almeida-García & Paulo Morgado & Luiz Mendes-Filho, 2020. "Residents’ Quality of Life in Smart Tourism Destinations: A Theoretical Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Nicky Rogge & Ilse Nijverseel, 2019. "Quality of Life in the European Union: A Multidimensional Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 765-789, January.
    8. Zeinab Asadpourian & Mehdi Rahimian & Saeed Gholamrezai, 2020. "SWOT-AHP-TOWS Analysis for Sustainable Ecotourism Development in the Best Area in Lorestan Province, Iran," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 289-315, November.
    9. Sara Kinsbergen & Esther Konijn & Simon Kuijpers‐Heezemans & Gabriëlle op 't Hoog & Dirk‐Jan Koch & Mieke Molthof, 2021. "Informalisation of international volunteering: A new analytical framework explaining differential impacts of the ‘orphanage tourism’ debate in the Netherlands," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(8), pages 1304-1320, November.
    10. Phuong T. Nguyen & Sam Wells & Nam Nguyen, 2019. "A Systemic Indicators Framework for Sustainable Rural Community Development," Systemic Practice and Action Research, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 335-352, June.
    11. Uysal, Muzaffer & Sirgy, M. Joseph & Woo, Eunju & Kim, Hyelin (Lina), 2016. "Quality of life (QOL) and well-being research in tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 244-261.
    12. Lähtinen, Katja & Myllyviita, Tanja & Leskinen, Pekka & Pitkänen, Sari K., 2014. "A systematic literature review on indicators to assess local sustainability of forest energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1202-1216.
    13. Andrades, Lidia & Dimanche, Frederic, 2017. "Destination competitiveness and tourism development in Russia: Issues and challenges," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 360-376.
    14. Rhonda Phillips & Jay Stein, 2013. "An Indicator Framework for Linking Historic Preservation and Community Economic Development," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 1-15, August.
    15. Alexandra Grecu & Andreea Karina Gruia & Marian Marin & Mariana Bănuță & Cosmin Olteanu & Ionuț Constantin & Mihaela Gadoiu & Camelia Teodorescu & Răzvan Cătălin Dobrea & Cristian Constantin Drăghici, 2019. "Specificity of Sustainable Structural Dynamics of Local Economy in Romanian Tourist Resorts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-21, December.
    16. Tanja Myllyviita & Katja Lähtinen & Teppo Hujala & Leena Leskinen & Lauri Sikanen & Pekka Leskinen, 2014. "Identifying and rating cultural sustainability indicators: a case study of wood-based bioenergy systems in eastern Finland," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 287-304, April.
    17. Pan, Tze-Jen, 2012. "Motivations of volunteer overseas and what have we learned – The experience of Taiwanese students," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1493-1501.
    18. Mac Ginty, Roger, 2013. "Indicators+: A proposal for everyday peace indicators," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 56-63.
    19. Lynn Gregory & Kathleen Schroeder & Cynthia Wood, 2021. "A Paradigm Shift in International Service-Learning: The Imperative for Reciprocal Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, April.
    20. Hua Qin & Courtney G. Flint, 2017. "Changing Community Variations in Perceptions and Activeness in Response to the Spruce Bark Beetle Outbreak in Alaska," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:120:y:2015:i:2:p:577-600. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.