{"id":{"repo_id":"lethbridge","oai_identifier":"oai:opus.uleth.ca:10133/3295"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/lethbridge/oai:opus.uleth.ca:10133/3295","repository":{"repo_id":"lethbridge","name":"University of Lethbridge","base_url":"https://opus.uleth.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Motivation and socio-cultural sustainability of voluntourism","abstract":"Volunteer tourism (voluntourism) has been described as an alternative form of tourism to mass tourism. It has been suggested that understanding the motivations of voluntourists might lead to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of voluntourism sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to identify the key motives of voluntourists and how these motives affect the socio-cultural sustainability of a society. Virtual ethnography, observation, and semi-structured interviews were employed in order to collect the research data from Eden Valley – a Canadian First Nation reserve, Global Citizen Network (GCN) – a voluntourism organiser, and voluntourists who took part in previous volunteering trips. The study found that authenticity, cultural concerns, the search for unique experience, helping the ‘other’, and self-healing are the key motives that drive travellers to participate in voluntourism projects. The data collected show that voluntourism has a greater positive socio-cultural impact on targeted communities than mass-tourism.","abstract_html":"Volunteer tourism (voluntourism) has been described as an alternative form of tourism to mass tourism. It has been suggested that understanding the motivations of voluntourists might lead to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of voluntourism sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to identify the key motives of voluntourists and how these motives affect the socio-cultural sustainability of a society. Virtual ethnography, observation, and semi-structured interviews were employed in order to collect the research data from Eden Valley – a Canadian First Nation reserve, Global Citizen Network (GCN) – a voluntourism organiser, and voluntourists who took part in previous volunteering trips. The study found that authenticity, cultural concerns, the search for unique experience, helping the ‘other’, and self-healing are the key motives that drive travellers to participate in voluntourism projects. The data collected show that voluntourism has a greater positive socio-cultural impact on targeted communities than mass-tourism.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Alomari, Thabit"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012","date_published":"2012","updated_at":"2026-07-27T20:02:08Z","subjects":["Volunteer tourism","Volunteer tourism -- Social aspects","Dissertations, Academic"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["hdl:10133/3295"],"render_values":[{"text":"hdl:10133/3295","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2012"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Volunteer tourism","Volunteer tourism -- Social aspects","Dissertations, Academic"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["hdl:10133/3295"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.other","label":"Dc Description Other","values":["Volunteer tourism (voluntourism) has been described as an alternative form of tourism to mass tourism. It has been suggested that understanding the motivations of voluntourists might lead to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of voluntourism sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to identify the key motives of voluntourists and how these motives affect the socio-cultural sustainability of a society. Virtual ethnography, observation, and semi-structured interviews were employed in order to collect the research data from Eden Valley – a Canadian First Nation reserve, Global Citizen Network (GCN) – a voluntourism organiser, and voluntourists who took part in previous volunteering trips. The study found that authenticity, cultural concerns, the search for unique experience, helping the ‘other’, and self-healing are the key motives that drive travellers to participate in voluntourism projects. The data collected show that voluntourism has a greater positive socio-cultural impact on targeted communities than mass-tourism."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Motivation and socio-cultural sustainability of voluntourism"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:date.issued":["2012"],"dc:description.other":["Volunteer tourism (voluntourism) has been described as an alternative form of tourism to mass tourism. It has been suggested that understanding the motivations of voluntourists might lead to a better understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of voluntourism sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to identify the key motives of voluntourists and how these motives affect the socio-cultural sustainability of a society. Virtual ethnography, observation, and semi-structured interviews were employed in order to collect the research data from Eden Valley – a Canadian First Nation reserve, Global Citizen Network (GCN) – a voluntourism organiser, and voluntourists who took part in previous volunteering trips. The study found that authenticity, cultural concerns, the search for unique experience, helping the ‘other’, and self-healing are the key motives that drive travellers to participate in voluntourism projects. The data collected show that voluntourism has a greater positive socio-cultural impact on targeted communities than mass-tourism."],"dc:identifier":["hdl:10133/3295"],"dc:subject":["Volunteer tourism","Volunteer tourism -- Social aspects","Dissertations, Academic"],"dc:title":["Motivation and socio-cultural sustainability of voluntourism"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T20:02:08Z"}