Elephant-based Volunteer Tourism

Elephant-based Volunteer Tourism
Author: Madyson Taylor
Publisher:
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2018
Genre: Animal welfare
ISBN:

Due to the diverse forms of interaction between humans and animals, particularly in tourism settings, it is no surprise that there has been growing scholarship evaluating its intersection (Cohen, 2009; Fennell, 2012 a,b,c, 2013, 2014, 2015). In recent decades, social science researchers have begun to take up these intersections via tourist experiences encountering wildlife (Markwell, 2015) with a critical subtheme of captive animals as visitor attractions. Informed by eco-feminist philosophy, a case study of elephant-based voluntourism in Thailand is the focus in this scholarship. The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand volunteer tourist perspectives of captive elephant tourism in Thailand. Objectives of this research were to interpret stories and meanings of elephant welfare held by volunteer tourists and assess the potential of volunteer tourism to aid in the improvement of captive elephant welfare. Stories were weaved using tenets of narrative analysis (Glover, 2003; Polkinghorne, 1995) oriented through an eco-feminist lens. Interview data revealed that the process of engagement in elephant welfare and volunteering has resulted in participants feeling a moral responsibility to continue forms of advocacy. The data provides context from which to analyze and think critically about care and welfare and how these pieces may interact to influence the operative nature of tourism enterprises and the wellbeing of captive elephants.

The Role Volunteer Tourism Plays in Conservation

The Role Volunteer Tourism Plays in Conservation
Author: Jasveen Rattan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:

This study examined the role volunteer tourism played in the conservation of elephants in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A case study was conducted to determine whether volunteer tourism at the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) had an effect on elephant conservation. Specifically, this study looked at how volunteer tourism and the ENP had an impact on: non-volunteer tourists, elephants, the local economy, and government policy. Mixed methods were used to attain the data in this study. Self-administered questionnaires were created to determine the impact volunteer tourism had on non-volunteer tourists. Results showed an increase in non-volunteer tourists' awareness of elephant tourism, volunteer tourism and elephant conservation during the time they spent at the park. Self-administered questionnaires were also used to determine whether members of the local community felt they were receiving economic or social benefits from volunteer tourism and the ENP. The data showed that community participants felt they were receiving both economic and social benefits but their responses varied depending on sex, age, and how long they had lived in the region. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to determine the role the ENP had on the conservation of elephants in Thailand and government policy. Interviewees consisted of experts in the industry who were knowledgeable about elephant tourism, volunteer tourism, and the ENP. The data indicated that the ENP created awareness about elephant conservation issues with non-volunteer tourists, volunteers, the community, and government officials. However, the ENP did not have any measureable effect on government policy. The model of volunteer tourism utilized by the Elephant Nature Park has been shown to be effective in conserving the domestic elephant and in creating awareness about domestic elephant conservation issues in Thailand.

The Elephant Tourism Business

The Elephant Tourism Business
Author: Eric Laws
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1789245869

Elephant tourism is a growing activity in many countries across Asia and Africa and is popular with tourists from all parts of the world. Elephant tourism has grown rapidly, providing the only viable way for elephants and their owners to survive since the banning of logging. Old logging camps have been developed into sanctuaries for some elephants, but many other camps were established as entertainment centres, resulting in serious welfare issues for the elephants and their mahouts. The profits from elephant tourism in Asia have encouraged African operators to follow a similar business model. This book draws attention to the need for a comprehensive and rigorous focus on local solutions to improve the welfare of captive elephants, their mahouts and local residents, and to enhance tourists' experiences of elephant tourism.

Tourism and Wellness

Tourism and Wellness
Author: Bryan S. R. Grimwood
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2018-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1498563309

Tourism and Wellness: Travel for the Good of All? enhances academic understandings and analyses of tourism as a social and worldmaking force by situating broad questions of well-being, health, and equity within the scaffolds of critical tourism studies. Contributors touch on power and politics, space and place, reflexivity and relationships, values and affect, and inequality and equity as viewed through critically informed and social justice perspectives. This collection of cutting-edge, critical tourism analyses contextualizes and disrupts how wellness is understood in tourism. For more information, check out A Conversation with the Editors of Tourism and Wellness: Travel for the Good of All?

Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer Tourism
Author: Stephen Wearing
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780851997650

Volunteer tourism describes a field of tourism, in which travelers visit a destination and take part in projects in the local community. Projects are commonly nature-based, people-based or involve restoration of buildings and artifacts (e.g. restoration of a Buddhist temple inMongolia).

Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer Tourism
Author: Mary Mostafanezhad
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2016-02-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 131700096X

Crossing disciplinary and chronological boundaries, Volunteer Tourism: Popular Humanitarianism in Neoliberal Times is the first full-length treatment of volunteer tourism from a longitudinal ethnographic perspective. Volunteer tourism, one of the fastest growing niche tourism markets in the world, is a type of tourism in which tourists pay to participate in conservation, humanitarian or development oriented projects. Volunteer Tourism is a comprehensive and comparative study of the perspectives of Thai host community members, NGO practitioners and international volunteer tourists. The book thus shines an ethnographic lens onto the complexities and contradictions of the volunteer tourism experience in northern Thailand. Drawing on cross-disciplinary perspectives in geography and anthropology as well as development, tourism and cultural studies, Volunteer Tourism illustrates how a focus on sentimentality in the volunteer tourism encounter obscures the structural inequalities on which the experience is based. Such a focus situates volunteer tourism within the commodification and sentimentalization of development and global justice agendas, which hail the new moral consumer and reframe questions of structural inequality as questions of individual morality. As a result, albeit inadvertently, the practice of volunteer tourism serves the continued expansion of the cultural logics and economic practices of neoliberalism.

The Business of Sustainable Tourism Development and Management

The Business of Sustainable Tourism Development and Management
Author: Susan L. Slocum
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351031058

The Business of Sustainable Tourism Development and Management provides a comprehensive introduction to sustainable tourism, crucially combining both theoretical and practical approaches to equip students with the tools to successfully manage a sustainable tourism business or destination. Covering a range of crucial topics such as mass tourism, alternative tourism, human capital management, and many more, this book incorporates a global curriculum that widens the sustainable tourism debate to include theoretical perspectives, applied research, best-practice frameworks, business tools, and case studies, facilitating a more comprehensive sustainable tourism educational strategy. Information on how to effectively implement strategies that can be applied to business environments, entrepreneurship, and job skills to enhance career preparation is at the forefront of this textbook. Highly illustrated and with an interactive companion website including bonus learning materials, this is the ideal textbook for students of tourism, hospitality, and events management at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer Tourism
Author: Tabea Herbutt
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2013-01-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3656344213

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Sociology - Work, Education, Organisation, grade: 1,0, Technical University of Munich (Lehrstuhl für Forstwirtschaft und Ressourcenmanagement), language: English, abstract: Since the 1970ies volunteer tourism has sparked academic as well as public interest and debate. This thesis consists of a concise analysis of current theories and research interests in this field. It points out challenges and opportunities of international volunteering, using a case study from South Africa, especially focusing on the area of research volunteering in a conservation context. The analysis of attitudes and perceptions of the volunteer as well as potential benefits the experience may have on their future life in general and career especially has been carried out by means of online survey. Further similarities and differences between ‘general’ volunteers and research volunteers have been established and analyzed, leading to the insight that altruism combined with the desire to travel and experience a different culture are central motivators to both groups and similar perceived benefits are attributed to volunteering. This study concludes that research volunteering can be especially beneficial to all parties involved if design and realization of the project are given great consideration and suggests further research into the complex task to develop mutually beneficial volunteering projects despite ongoing commodification of this area of sustainable tourism.

Volunteer Vacations

Volunteer Vacations
Author: Bill McMillon
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2009-02
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1569765278

For the increasing number of people looking for ways to make a difference while on vacation, this fully updated edition is filled with in-depth information to get them ready for their adventure, including contacts, locations, costs, dates, project details, and profiles of 150 select organizations that run thousands of programs in the United States and around the world. Including new details about long-term projects and organizations specifically tailored for families, seniors, and people with disabilities, this definitive sourcebook provides a wealth of opportunities for anyone interested in taking a truly meaningful vacation and provides new anecdotes about all kinds of jobs and the positive impact they had on volunteers' lives.

Learning Service

Learning Service
Author: Claire Bennett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781912157068

"This year, over ten million people will go abroad, eager to find the perfect blend of adventure and altruism. Volunteer travel can help you find your place in the world--and find out what you're made of. So why do so many international volunteer programs fail to make an impact? Why do some do more harm than good? Learning Service offers a powerful new approach that invites volunteers to learn from host communities before trying to 'help' them. It's also a thoughtful critique of the sinister side of volunteer travel; a guide for turning good intentions into effective results; and essential advice on how to make the most of your experience."--Amazon.com.