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An Inductive Study on the Authenticity of Voluntourism

  • Journal of Tourism Sciences
  • Abbr : JTS
  • 2019, 43(1), pp.113-133
  • DOI : 10.17086/JTS.2019.43.1.113.133
  • Publisher : The Tourism Sciences Society Of Korea
  • Research Area : Social Science > Tourism
  • Received : September 3, 2018
  • Accepted : November 7, 2018
  • Published : January 1, 2019

Kim, Ye-Ji 1 Kim, Hong-bumm 1

1세종대학교

Excellent Accredited

ABSTRACT

The present study was conducted to define the meaning of voluntourism and to develop its value in tourists’ experience by demonstrating the authenticity of voluntourism as a form of alternative tourism. For the purpose of projecting the theoretical construct into more manageable research scales, authenticity of tourism was deducted by the three steps of collecting and categorizing, rearranging the collected 60 data samples in an on-line community for voluntourism, and drawing conclusions. In order to analyze the collected data systematically, 25 voluntourism cases were selected according to spatial criteria of countries, content criteria of activity, and personal criteria of motivation. Through the components of voluntourism experiences that appeared in the 25 selected cases, authenticity of voluntourism was derived by inductive inference. Finally, three major experiences of voluntourism were delineated as representative authenticity of tourism, which were mentioned most frequently in the total data set. As an inductive conclusion of this study, these experiences were denominated as “pursuing experience for the exotic environment,” “pursuing experience for self-growth,” and “pursuing experience for cultural exchange.” The characteristics and the ways of interpretation of the authenticity of voluntourism derived in this study are expected to suggest valuable implications for useful baseline data in understanding tourists’ needs for voluntourism as an important form of alternative tourism.

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