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The purpose of this article is to promote debate about the linkages between volunteer tourism and international development, and to argue that volunteer tourism should be assessed as a development activity. Most volunteer tourism activities involve participants from developed countries traveling to volunteer in developing nations, with volunteers largely motivated by the desire to make a positive contribution to their hosts. Volunteer tourism has strong linkages to sustainable tourism, which originated in response to criticisms of mass tourism, including concerns over the negative impacts on hosting communities. In this article I propose a framework to evaluate the potential contributions of volunteer tourism projects to developmental goals. The proposed framework includes four criteria: that volunteers provide skills unavailable locally; that projects form part of a larger development program; that projects prioritize benefit to the host community; and that projects are community driven.

This article presents an exploration of the understudied phenomenon of volunteering on organic farms, a movement associated with World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). Using a hermeneutic phenomenological lens influenced by philosophies of Hans George Gadamer, this article illuminates experiences of volunteers on organic farms in Argentina, experiences we denote as “organic volunteering.” Our use of phenomenology provides an opportunity to develop deeper understandings of these lived experiences and what they mean to volunteers. Data collection and analysis of active interviews and participant observation with volunteers revealed a central understanding of opening to living in interconnectedness, which is underpinned by six horizons of understanding: 1) reconnecting, 2) exchanging knowledge, 3) experiencing harmony, 4) bonding with others, 5) consciousness raising, and 6) transforming. Our work suggests that while these experiences are likely similar to volunteer or even alternative tourism broadly defined, organic volunteering encompasses aspects that may extend beyond what has been put forward by volunteer tourism researchers, and is perhaps its own niche of alternative tourism.

Modern leisure and tourism forms that focus on learning activities have become mainstream. This study investigates the influence that Taiwanese backpackers' personality traits and wellness lifestyles have on learning travels. For this study, we established a wellness lifestyle scale and learning travel themes and patterns. A total of 361 valid questionnaires were obtained. We performed factor analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSS statistical software and LISREL8.2 software for empirical analysis and study. The results of this study indicate that personality traits significantly influence wellness lifestyles and learning travels. Wellness lifestyles also significantly influence learning travels. In addition, we found that personality traits influence learning travels through wellness lifestyles. Additionally, the lifestyle scale and learning travel themes and patterns developed in this study can provide future researchers with a reference for their study targets and topics.

The wine industry has had rapid growth worldwide over the last couple of decades. This growth has been particularly rapid in the State of Virginia over the last few years. While the impact of revenue and employment generated from the sale of wine is of obvious benefit to an area's economy, the potential generation of dollars from tourists whose major or secondary purpose for visiting an area is to visit wineries is also of great importance for many wine-producing areas. With the wine industry consisting of products with over 100,000 different brands, it is difficult for smaller wineries, particularly in wine areas less popular than California or Bordeaux, to gain market exposure and access. Therefore, many wineries rely on cellar door sales generated primarily from tasting rooms and tours, and on localized distribution. Winery tourism thus serves an important role not only in generating tourism revenue, but also in building brand recognition and consummating on-the-spot sales. This article reports the distribution methods and tasting room policies of Virginia wineries and provides a summary of what Virginia wineries consider to be their biggest problems.

This study develops and tests a theoretical model, drawing on social-psychological perspectives of social movement theory to explain changes in consciousness among Earthwatch expedition volunteers. Earthwatch expeditions are a form of alternative tourism in which volunteers participate in any of 126 different types of 10–14-day research-oriented field expeditions that may include evaluating the health of a coral reef, studying maternal health among West African women, assessing the killer whale population off the coast of Pugent Sound, or recording oral history in Dominica. A pretrip and posttrip survey of over 350 Earthwatch expedition volunteers conducted during the summer of 1998 reveals that both network ties established during an Earthwatch expedition and perceived self-efficacy gains during an Earthwatch expedition positively and significantly influence consciousness-raising. In other words, both the relationships established and the challenges overcome during an Earthwatch expedition increase participants' feelings about making purchases, reading books and magazines, and traveling, in accordance with their sense of political justice.