The attitudes of Thai hosts towards western volunteer tourists

IntroductionVolunteer tourism is a relatively new form of tourism (Ackerberg & Prapasawudi, 2009; Tomazos & Butler, 2009). It is a phenomenon originating in Western countries, mainly Britain and Europe, and then expanding to other regions including Australia and the United States. Now it is a growing trend among participants in Eastern or developing countries such as Asia and Africa as well (Alexander, 2012; Lo & Lee, 2011; Wearing & McGehee, 2013).According to Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM, 2008), volunteer tourism has experienced phenomenal growth over the past two decades: approximately 120,000 travellers from the United States and the United Kingdom take a volunteer trip abroad annually. However, TRAM (2008) also notes that this number is based only on individuals who take trips through volunteering organisations; therefore, the number of volunteer tourists could be much higher than this estimate, because there is also a great number of people taking volunteer trips independent of volunteer organisations, representing a very large proportion of all volunteer tourists.The phenomenal growth of volunteer tourism is the result of a combination of factors. Among these are the growth of mass tourism (Callanan & Thomas, 2005; Tomazos & Butler, 2009; TRAM, 2008) and the power of the media that exposes people to other, poorer, societies, thereby inspiring them to do something worthwhile for those societies (Callanan & Thomas, 2005). In addition, natural disasters which have occurred in many regions also play an important role in the growth of volunteer tourism. The industry report 'Volunteer Travel Insights 2009' points out that the September 11th incident in the United States in 2001 and the Boxing Day tsunami that hit many countries in Southeast Asia in 2004 have made a number of travellers more aware of opportunities to take a holiday that involved volunteering (Nestora, Yeung & Calderon, 2009).Moreover, Wearing & McGehee (2013) also add that other factors, such as a reduction in barriers to travel, an increase in the population in the middle class in many developing countries, and the desire of the middle class to gain more unusual and meaningful tourism experiences, also contribute to the growth and popularity of volunteer tourism.The phenomenon of volunteer tourism has caught the interest of researchers and practitioners, who have begun to investigate this issue (Wearing, 2001).Existing studies argue that volunteer tourism has been viewed as an ideal form of tourism with no or few negative impacts (e.g. Broad, 2003; Brown, 2005; Brown& Morrison, 2003; Stoddart & Rogerson, 2004). A number of studies report good intentions of volunteer tourists to take part in volunteer tourism activities (e.g. Brown, 2005; Carter, 2008; Chen & Chen, 2011; Lo & Lee, 2001; Sin, 2009; Wearing, 2001) as well as positive experiences they have gained from such participation (e.g. Broad, 2003; Harlow & Pomfret, 2007; Lo & Lee, 2001; McIntosh & Zahra, 2007). However, some recent studies have begun to point out the potential negative impacts of volunteer tourism. For example, Guttentag (2009) and Vrasti (2013) argue that volunteer tourism is a new form of colonialism, where people from developed nations take advantage of the poverty and unfortunate circumstances of people in developing nations, and this form of tourism creates another type of dependency between developed and developing nations.In addition, it is apparent that among the existing literature, the perspective of the volunteer tourists has received overwhelming interest, compared to the perspectives of the host communities where volunteer tourism takes place. The significance of understanding host communities' attitudes towards tourists lies primarily in the general acceptance that host communities are key players in the success or failure of sustainable tourism development (Ap, 1992; Chandralal, 2010; Taylor, 1995). …