Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/45203

Volunteer tourism has experienced rapid growth since the mid-1990s, mainly in North America, Europe, and Oceania. Academic research on volunteer tourism began in the early 2000s, and has gradually increased since then. Given the resulting accumulation of research, this paper tries to analyze the trends and features of volunteer tourism research, and proposes a future research agenda. In order to do so, the author examined peer-reviewed research papers in major journals, as well as academic books on volunteer tourism. The analysis identified four key features of volunteer tourism, with the common theme being strong interest in the potential of volunteer tourism as a means to influence individuals and make positive changes in society. In addition, four research agendas are proposed, emphasizing the need for more holistic, contextualized, and comparative research.