Fostering voluntourism satisfaction and future behaviour in island destinations

Abstract

Volunteer tourism, which is commonly referred to as voluntourism, is currently a dynamic alternative travel option with a focus on sustainable tourism. However, existing literature reveals that voluntourism activities do not meet tourists’ expectation, fail to provide experiences related to environmental issues, and thus, leads to their dissatisfaction. Realising the importance of the satisfaction of the voluntourists’ future behaviour, applying the volunteer function inventory, coupled with environmental concern, the authors aim to identify factors influencing voluntourists’ satisfaction and present the outcomes of voluntourists’ satisfaction among island visitors in Malaysia. Using a purposive sampling method, the data were collected through a survey among voluntarists in east coast island tourist destinations. A total of 278 valid questionnaires were gathered from two sessions of data collection process. Due to the model’s complexity, SEM-PLS version 3.3.2. was employed to analyse the hypotheses of the study. The results of the study revealed that career and social functions, in contrast with other variables, do not positively influence the voluntourists’ satisfaction. The continuous intention and the intention to recommend factors positively support the research model. Studies on voluntourists in Malaysian island destinations are relatively novel. Besides enriching the literature on voluntourism, which is particularly scarce especially in the Asian setting, the findings are also beneficial to local governments and voluntourism organisations to develop suitable approaches and policies to promote voluntourism in island destinations. The study is limited to the island destination setting. Future studies should focus on other destinations such as cultural and heritage sites, because these destinations have sentimental values that should be preserved.