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Article history:
Received 15 February 2014
Received in revised form 25 March 2014
Accepted 3 April 2014
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Altruism
Motivation
Ghana
Pull-push
Volunteer tourists
a b s t r a c t
Many issues surrounding the motivations of volunteer tourists to developing countries remain unresolved.
This paper investigates the motives of volunteer tourists to Ghana. A survey was undertaken of 410 volunteer
tourists in Ghana and the results indicate that three key motivations: (altruism and learning, philanthropy,
and socialization), inuence the decision to volunteer in Ghana. However, for international volunteerism in
Ghana, the main motivation is that of altruism and learning. Differences were found among the volunteer tourists
due to past travel experience including duration of past trips, education, past volunteer activity and the amount
of money committed to volunteering in Ghana.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The concept of volunteer tourism has seen growth in the past few
decades because of its emphasis on helping alleviate the needs of others.
Volunteer tourism occurs in various forms including travelling for
internship (Billig & Root, 2006; Bringle & Hatcher, 2011; Simons &
Cleary, 2005), study tour (Haloburdo & Thompson, 1998; Heron,
2005), international gap year (Lyons, Hanley, Wearing, & Neil, 2012),
student exchange programs (Lyons & Wearing, 2008), charity work,
service-learning programs (Yates & Youniss, 1998) and career break
(Gilmour & Saunders, 1995). Irrespective of the forms volunteer tourism
takes, motivations are crucial for travel.
Over the decade, Ghana has been a key recipient of international
volunteer tourists (Novelli, 2005; Tomazos & Butler, 2009). Statistical
evidence of the subject however remains scanty even from government
sources. Authors including Boakye (2012) observe that international
students often travel to the villages in Ghana for voluntary work.
There is however little empirical evidence to explain the motivations
of these volunteers to the country.
Besides, researchers have varying conclusions regarding the issue of
volunteer motivation. Brown and Lehto (2005) equally argue that no
single motivational theory has yet fully connected with the hard facts
of volunteer motivation consistently and with results that can be replicated. Harrison (2003) similarly noted that while the motivation to travel for mainstream travellers is the same, specic market segments such
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: felixotoo@gmail.com (F.E. Otoo), amuquandoh@yahoo.co.uk
(F.E. Amuquandoh).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2014.04.001
2211-9736/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
as volunteer tourism lack such common motivation. Though general literature tends to support the notion that volunteers have a helping disposition towards host communities, emerging studies seem to suggest
that the nature of volunteer tourism is more about the gains made by
the volunteers rather than those being helped. Gilllan (2006) and
Simpson (2004) highlight that benets to host organizations and communities are less clear particularly as volunteers become the focus rather
than host communities. Dumlie, Kunze, Pankhurst, Potter, and Van
Bruaene (2006) also hold the view that short-term placements may be
less cost-effective and may interrupt continuity of service. Smith
(1981) suggests that volunteering is essentially motivated by the expectation of psychic benets of some kind as a result of activities that have a
market value greater than any remuneration received for such activities.
This paper is a response to calls for more empirical examination of
the motivations of volunteer tourists using a large-scale survey
(Brown & Lehto, 2005; Chen & Chen, 2011). Sufce to say, it is only in
understanding volunteers motivations that satisfaction, longer stay
and repeat visit can be guaranteed. This study therefore explores the
motivation of volunteer tourists to Ghana.
1.1. Context of the study
There is an important body of research dealing with the motives and
desires of tourists as well as their planning procedures. Nonetheless,
Fodness (1994) has stated that empirical research concerning the
motives of tourists is an important area in tourism that has yielded
few existing results. Similarly, Kozak (2001) also rationalize that it is imperative for empirical examination of tourist motivation to be undertaken, since this will help to identify the attributes that are to be promoted,
2. Methodology
The study was based on a random sample of 410 volunteer
tourists in Ghana between June and August, 2012. Thirty-eight
volunteer organisations granted permission for their clients involvement in the study. A list of volunteers was then obtained from these
identied volunteer organisations. Sixty percent of the volunteers
from each organisation were randomly selected for the study. For
volunteers who were not within immediate reach, the questionnaires
were given to their coordinators for delivery and subsequent collection.
This approach helped to reach volunteers regardless of their location in
the country.
Data were collected through the use of questionnaires consisting
of three sections. The rst section focused on the trip characteristics of
volunteer tourists in Ghana. The second module focused on motivations
of volunteer tourists. The motivational elements were measured on a
ve-point Likert scale from 1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree.
The motivation elements were selected based on earlier studies in
the volunteer tourism literature (Brown & Lehto, 2005; Jonsson &
Devonish, 2008; Palacios, 2010; Raymond & Hall, 2008; Zahra &
McIntosh, 2007). The third section dealing with socio-demographic
characteristics of respondents sought data about country of origin,
age, marital status, and educational attainment.
The questionnaire was pretested on a sample of twenty volunteer
tourists in Cape Coast. This town was selected because it is a leading
tourist destination in Ghana. The pre-test helped the researchers to
assess the viability of the instrument after which the necessary
modications were made. The questionnaires were in English
based on the assumption that most of these volunteer tourists can
read and write in English.
Both the t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were
performed in order to assess how the motivations of participants
differed across socio-demographic and travel characteristics. The
t-test statistical analysis was employed on socio-demographic variables that were measured along a dichotomous scale. These include
gender (1 = male, 2 = female) and marital status (1 = unmarried,
2 = married). Other characteristics of respondents such as country
of origin, age, and educational level were measured along interval
scale differences using ANOVA.
3. Results of the Research
3.1. Prole of the sample
In all, there were more females (69%) involved in the study than
males (31%). While the age of respondents ranged from 14 years to 56
years, close to half (49%) of the respondents were between the ages of
20 to 29 years. Those below the age of 20 years constituted 45%.
About 7% of the volunteer tourists were above 30 years. The educational
levels of the respondents were notably basic (3.2%), secondary (17%),
university or college (66%) and post graduate (14%). The marital distributions of the respondents were single (92%), married (6.8%), divorced
(1%) and widowed (0.2%). Nearly two-thirds of the volunteers were
students (67.3%).
Europe contributed nearly half (49.5%) of the respondents while
America contributed 156 (38.1%) of volunteers to the country. The
number of volunteer tourists from Africa and Oceania represented
2.2% and 2.4% respectively. Additionally, the average length of stay
of the volunteer tourists was 47.4 days.
3.2. Structure of motivations for volunteering in Ghana
The literature acknowledges that there are varied motivational
factors inuencing the decision to volunteer overseas. To enable
documentation of how these motivations interact to inuence the
53
Table 1
Factors motivating volunteer tourists to Ghana.
Factor
II
III
Factor Loadings
0.669
0.793
0.617
0.718
0.680
0.734
0.757
0.622
0.631
0.636
0.526
0.508
0.756
0.511
0.694
0.585
0.656
0.739
0.698
Eigen values
Cronbachs alpha
7.964
30.6
0.91
2.321
8.9
0.67
1.741
6.7
0.62
Total
46.2
Table 2
Motivations by socio-demographic characteristics.
Background characteristics
Number
Philanthropy
Socialization
Gender
Male
Female
126
284
1.1792
1.1705
P = 0 .809
1.4722
1.5308
P = 0 .263
1.4630
1.4965
P = 0 .534
Marital status
Unmarried
Married
382
28
1.1789
1.0952
P = 0 .207
1.5052
1.6161
P = 0 .247
1.4974
1.3333
P = 0 .096
Age
b 20
20-29
N 29
184
199
27
1.1834
1.1738
1.0988
P = 0 .480
1.4918
1.5264
1.5556
P = 0 .706
1.4620
1.5042
1.5185
P = 0 .673
Highest education
Basic
High school
College/ university
Post graduate
13
70
270
57
1.3654
1.1940
1.1710
1.1140
P = 0 .101
1.7885
1.6107
1.4889
1.4430
P = 0. 032
1.4615
1.4333
1.4815
1.5789
P = 0 .430
Continent
Africa
Europe
America
Asia
Oceania
9
203
156
32
10
1.1667
1.1605
1.1656
1.3229
1.0750
P = 0.112
1.2778
1.5049
1.5176
1.6328
1.4250
P = 0 .355
1.3704
1.5090
1.4936
1.4062
1.2667
P = 0 .457
55
Table 3
Motivations by trip characteristics.
Background characteristics
Number
Philanthropy
Socialization
Travel company
Accompanied
Alone
280
130
1.1670
1.1865
P = 0.586
1.5045
1.5308
P = 0.613
1.4369
1.5923
P = 0.004
183
19
208
1.1981
1.1930
1.1494
P = 0.354
1.5587
1.6842
1.4567
P = 0 .035
1.5428
1.3158
1.4519
P = 0.064
Travel duration
Less than 1 month
1 to 3 months
3 months plus
229
145
36
1.1670
1.1437
1.3310
P = 0.011
1.4956
1.5190
1.5972
P = 0 .502
1.4367
1.5310
1.6204
P = 0 .051
Type of activity
Conservation
Education
Social services
Medical
109
270
117
81
1.1560
1.1988
1.1546
1.2068
P = 0 .524
1.4128
1.5333
1.4017
1.6296
P = 0 .002
1.3945
1.5111
1.4843
1.4486
P = 0 .232
64
85
141
1.1719
1.2353
1.1212
1.4844
1.5441
1.5071
P = 0.750
1.4844
1.5529
1.4161
P = 0 .103
P = 0.052
motivations. Similarly, the notion that age poses an important distinction in the motivation to volunteer (Gillespie & King, 1985) was also
not supported in the ndings of this paper. Respondents below the
age of 29 were observed to have similar rating for their motivation to
volunteer in Ghana as those above 30 years. For example, while all age
categories were uncertain about their philanthropic and socialization
motives, altruism and learning was a shared concern among them.
There was however a slight difference in the mean score of volunteers
socialization motive in relation to their marital status. Thus, married
volunteers were more likely to be motivated by the desire to socialise
than their unmarried counterparts (McIntosh, Goeldner, & Ritchie, 1995).
The results also suggest that while volunteers with post graduate
education saw the need to volunteer for philanthropic reasons, their
counterparts who were in college/university, high school and basic
schools were undecided. This creates a notion that philanthropic
motives for volunteering are more predominant among volunteers
with higher educational attainment. Indeed education has been noted
to inuence certain travel behaviour.
Though signicant differences were not recorded between
volunteers motivation and their place of origin, an interesting
issue emerging from the mean score is what appears to be a strong
obligation among volunteers from so-called lesser developed regions
to volunteer in Ghana. Volunteers from Africa and to an extent Oceania
were certain about being motivated by altruism and learning,
philanthropy and socialization.
In exploring the motivations of volunteers to Ghana, it was evident
that those with no previous volunteer travel exposure had greater
philanthropic motives for engaging in volunteer travel than those with
more than two previous exposures. It is implicit that the desire to aid
the less privilege decreased with increasing travel exposure. Volunteers
motivations appeared to have shifted from a more altruistic orientation
to a more socialization centered motivation. Such argument appears to
correspond to earlier works of Sin (2009). Chen (1998) and Wearing
(2001) also argued that tourists past travel experience inuenced
their decision making behaviour and motivation. Lee (2011) found a
negative moderating effect of past volunteer tourism experience on
motivation toward intended/future participation.
Generally, volunteers who spent less than a month in the country
had greater altruism and learning as well as socialization motives than
those who spent longer duration in the country. This perhaps is an
indication that volunteers who spend shorter duration in the country
have stronger motivation for travelling than those who stay longer.
It was also evident that volunteers who engaged in social services
and conservation were more inclined to volunteer based on philanthropic motives. There were however uncertainty among medical and
educational volunteers regarding this motive. This could have resulted
from the fact that the issues that constituted philanthropy as a motivational factor were more inclined towards social development variables
(example: supplementing the local workforce, social improvement,
contribute to alleviating poverty and providing nancial assistance to
developmental projects).
In terms of the payment, altruism and learning appear to have
inuenced the amount paid to volunteer in Ghana. It is suggested in
this study that volunteers who are motivated by altruism and learning
were more willing to pay higher sums of dollars for their placement.
Overall, there is a line of research that debates whether altruism or
self-interest is the more dominant theme in volunteer tourist motivations (Wearing & McGehee, 2013). While this study establishes that
altruism is a dominant form of motivation in Ghana, it appears that
self-interest and altruism are not entirely mutually exclusive. Some
researchers have suggested that volunteers are not born altruists and
can adopt any position on the continuum between pure altruism and
pure egotism (Hustinx, 2001; Tomazos & Butler, 2010). Wearing and
McGehee (2013) and Rehberg (2005) believe that rather than an
absolute dichotomy of altruism versus self-interest, volunteer tourists
are quite able to possess multiple motivations simultaneously.
5. Conclusion
In the face of growing academic interest to understand the motivations of people who are willing to devote time and nance to help others
in need, this paper explored the motivations of volunteer tourists to
Ghana. Three underlying motivations draw volunteer tourists to
Ghana; altruism and learning, philanthropy, and socialization. Central
to the ideal of volunteerism is the idea of altruism and learning. Volunteers are also motivated to establish and strengthen relationship with
local community members as well as with their colleague volunteers.
Philanthropy is higher among rst-time volunteers who are better
educated and engaged in conservation and social services. Likewise,
socialization is a common motivation among volunteers who travel in
the company of others and for less than a month. People are committed
to devote more money to volunteer if they believe they are providing a
seless help to needy communities however short their stay is.
The socio-cultural and economic difference between the more
developed north and the less developed south provides the opportunity
for volunteers to offer humanitarian assistance. However, implicit
within the desire to assist others is the quest for cultural learning
about their destinations.
This paper has provided insight into the motivations of volunteer
tourists to Ghana. It has explored the differences of these motivations
on socio-demographic and travel characteristics. There is still a need
to explore how these motivations affect the experiences and overall
satisfaction in the country. Further studies are therefore required
to establish the resultant effects of motivations on satisfaction
and experiences.
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