Volunteer Tourism and Cross-Cultural-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Write a Detailed Critical Review of Jornal Artical about Votunteer Tourism and Cross-Cultural. Answer: Introduction The topic revolves around the concepts of volunteer tourism and cross-cultural understanding through the management of volunteer experiences. The concept of volunteer tourism has become popular nowadays, and the individuals within the travel and tourism industry have allowed the individuals to combine the travel and tourism activities with the voluntary work. The volunteer tourism is an effective reciprocal form of tourism that has facilitated the development of cross-cultural activities and enabled understanding among the participants effectively and easily. The journal article presented by Rachel Leigh Wilson has been studied thoroughly for gaining relevant ideas and knowledge regarding proper management of volunteer tourism programs which can reduce the chances of cross-cultural understanding and manage reinforcement of cultural stereotypes with ease and effectiveness[1]. By conducting an Appreciative Inquiry into various volunteer programs, it will be easy to explore new ideas an d concepts and furthermore determine the impact of volunteer tourism on the cultural understanding within the organisation. The findings further can help in ensuring that the cross-cultural understanding development will be perceived as a major objective of the volunteer tourism rather than sending the volunteers outside the country. Following this journal article will also be essential for understanding the vital role played by volunteer tourism in facilitating the accomplishment of goals and objectives through the proactive management and volunteer tourism programmes too. Volunteer tourism According to the journal article presented by Rachel Leigh Wilson, volunteer tourism is an important kind of travel and tourism concept, and it is not a part of the mass tourism and travel. The main purpose of the volunteer tourism is to develop a relationship between the traveller or volunteer and the respective host countries where both of them can be mutually benefited. This new and innovative tourism experience can create a sense of self-awareness and manage cross cultural understanding in a detailed manner to understand the individuals who have participated in the volunteer tourism programs in Singapore[2]. Volunteer tourism is an essential aspect of tourism that not only fosters the development of cross-cultural understanding but also allows the volunteer to gain better self-awareness skills and furthermore determine the level of motivation, expectations, knowledge and other tourism aspects. The voluntourism concept combines both the tourism and volunteering aspects, which is considered as an effective international travel and tourism aspect that can contribute to the sustainable development by adapting to the new culture and country[3]. The voluntourism also makes ways for efficiently managing volunteering work and furthermore allow the volunteers to participate in the tourism and volunteer works at the same time with ease and effectiveness. While working overseas, the majority of volunteers have managed to live p with the local host families for gaining an understanding of the cross-cultural concepts, manage tourism, and travel in an effective manner. The host family would welcome the volunteers to their home and provide them with opportunities to become a part of the community by sharing their everyday lives and customs. The volunteers can also celebrate their birthdays, some occasions with the host families as well while returning from their visit to the country[4]. From the journal article, it could be understood that people could not value what they actually did not understand and thus it would be necessary to gain an understanding of the local components and how those could contribute to the value addition within the travel and tourism industry. The skills that have been gained while sharing knowledge and information could help in managing the environment with travellers and tourists and furthermore understand how the tourism might create an impact on the development of cross-cultural understanding[5]. The volunteer tourism has largely contributed to the sustainable volunteer project and even the implementation of long term development by utilizing the skills, time, resource and energy effectively. This would also provide enough opportunities to managing enhanced learning and allow individuals to gain proper education and furthermore provide support to an entire family as well. The participation in voluntourism can help in contributing to a large extent to the local economy. The volunteers take advantages to go to various locations and do sightseeing and make island tours. There are many countries including Singapore rely heavily on the income generated from travel and tourism and the journal article, it is clearly understood that the volunteers support local businesses[6]. The voluntourism supports the local staffs, which can also provide lots of employment opportunities to the local people and allow them to pursue further training and development sessions to improve their skills, knowledge and expertise level. Cross cultural understanding in volunteer tourism There are differences between the volunteer tourism industry and other tourism forms, and thus it is the responsibility of the volunteers to interact with the local and social communities and contribute to the understanding of the culture that is being volunteered by individuals. The Cross-cultural understanding can help to gain proper understandings of the local culture where all the volunteers are present and gain awareness of the socio-economic, cultural, environmental and local issues which can create a positive or negative impact on the local community. The cross-cultural understanding also helps in making people learn, acknowledge, identify, analyse and interpret situations and conditions for preventing the issues related to a misunderstanding created due to the cultural differences[7]. The volunteers must create an open-minded approach to breaking down the components of previous stereotypes and manage the power assumptions through a cross-cultural understanding with ease and e ffectiveness. According to the journal article, the business organisations within the travel and tourism industry can also foster the development of good relationships between the host countries and volunteers through a better understanding of knowledge before travel. This would also include critical reflections made on behalf of the motivations of volunteers, understanding of expectations and provide reflections based on the travel and tourism experiences as well[8]. The volunteers of travel and tourism must also try to prevent misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the contribution made by the host communities to the experiences, skills and knowledge of volunteers. The cross-cultural understanding can also disseminate or disperse the various stereotypes and assumptions of power distributed between the developing and developed nations by gaining a thorough understanding of the experiences and skills based on cross-cultural understanding[9]. Volunteer travel and tourism have been rising among the Singapore based travellers and tourists nowadays. According to various surveys, it was seen that many of the travellers preferred the charitable work in Singapore as well as working aboard. Voluntourism has also managed to conduct a proper research on the organisation, which has been considered while travelling with. The vast amount of Experience, sustainability, financial roles and responsibilities are the important components for running programs and benefit the population positively[10]. Various theories and concepts Hofstede Cultural Dimensions theory One of the major theories of cross-cultural understanding through volunteering experience could be the Hofstede Cultural dimensions theory. This kind of effective theory acts as a framework for managing cross-cultural communication and determine the impacts created by the culture within the society based on the values of members, values related to the behaviours and structure associated with the factor analysis too[11]. The Hofstede cultural dimension theory utilizes the factor analysis for evaluating the outcomes by a survey of employee values and work on the four dimensions of culture including the individualism, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, power index and masculinity and femininity. Another additional cultural dimension could be the indulgence versus self-restraint[12]. The Hofstede theory has created a major research for carrying out the cross-cultural activities in an effective way as well as ensures successful international communication and business with ease and effectiveness. It is preferred by many authors of the journal because it is a preferred resource in the cross-cultural fields and enables studying the values, beliefs and other important concepts of cross culture and social beliefs creating an impact on the volunteer tourism[13]. Based on the journal article presented by Frederick, Leon and Arpana Gupta, to manage voluntourism in an effective and easy way, it is important to address issues regarding race, ethnicity, religion, values and styles of international communication. The demographics continue to change from time to time within a diversity, and thus it is essential to open doors for volunteer tourism and enable the tourists and travellers from various parts of the world to travel in global countries and contribute largely to the growth and sustainable development by adapting to the new culture of the country[14]. This would not only make them aware of the values and beliefs of the new place but would help them to explore the new concepts of cross-cultural communication and interact with people of that place by maintaining peace and harmony. The Hofstede cultural dimension theory considered the four major dimensions and analysed the cultures, which are different for the various countries. The power distance index allows the less knowledgeable workers to accept that services have been provided to them unequally. Here the volunteers are the workers who have believed that power distribution is done with discrimination and are not provided equally. The Uncertainty avoidance is another dimension of the Hofstede theory where the volunteers may face issues and even subject to some kind of harm due to certain situations. This can create beliefs among them and allow them to prevent such situations to the utmost level possible[15]. The Individualism vs collectivism dimension of the theory enables the volunteers to look after themselves as well as their families who are immediate. This is the degree to which the individuals within the society have been integrated into the groups while the collectivism represents the relationships built through tightly integrated relationships for gaining proper loyalty and support in case of any emergencies. Here the volunteers working within the travel and tourism industry have considered the travellers and tourists as their immediate families to create trust and loyalty and allow them to purchase the tourism services by adapting to the new culture of the place where they want to travel to. Within the masculine societies, female individuals are more emphatic and competitive, though less emphatic than the male individuals. Thus there is a certain gap between male and females[16]. Here the volunteers of tourism consider the male and female members equally, and they are made aware of the various cross-cultural dimensions before travel and purchase of tourism services. Bennetts Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity Another effective cross-cultural theory or model is the Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which includes the six stages including the denial, defense, minimisation, acceptance, adaptation and integration. During the first stage, i.e., the denial stage, the tourists refuse to establish communication with people from different cultures and do not focus on the cultural aspects of that country. The volunteers have the roles and responsibilities to make them understand the cultural differences and ensure that they can enjoy their travel peacefully[17]. The defense stage allows the individuals to take into consideration the cultures that are inferior to their own culture and this results in creating criticism. The volunteers of tourism and travel must make them understand to respect every culture and consider the values and beliefs of that different culture as well. The minimisation phase allows for reducing the criticism and make individuals respect every culture and believe that these cultures share common values, which can further help in preventing the cultural differences too[18]. The acceptance stage is needed to be maintained for making the volunteers of tourism to understand the cultural differences and even allow them to learn those properly. This would further help them to adopt the new culture of that place and get accustomed with the behaviours and attitudes of people with ease and effectiveness. The integration stage is accomplished by making the individuals achieve long term goals and objectives and manage changes in their behaviours and styles during communication with individuals belonging from a different culture.[19] Conclusion Based on the journal article, few authors such as Hammersley explored the concepts of cross-cultural understanding by creating a systematic method of self-reflection and knowledge about the community, host countries and culture that would be adopted by the volunteers. This would contribute to the successful accomplishment of voluntourism and furthermore facilitate greater knowledge and understanding prior to the travel and tourism activities managed by the volunteers. While managing the voluntourism activities, it is necessary for the volunteers to understand the different culture and create enough scopes and opportunities for sustaining within the business environment with ease. The different theories and models related to cross cultural activities had also been illustrated here along with the other aspects of volunteer tourism for deriving a good conclusion in the end. References Blackman, D, A Benson, "The Role of the Psychological Contract in Managing Research Volunteer Tourism.". inJournal of Travel Tourism Marketing, 27, 2010, 221-235. Brumbaugh, A, "The Impact of Diversity Seeking and Volunteer Orientation on Desire for Alternative Spring Break Programs.". inJournal of Travel Tourism Marketing, 27, 2010, 474-490. Burrai, E, X Font, J Cochrane, "Destination Stakeholders' Perceptions of Volunteer Tourism: An Equity Theory Approach.". inInternational Journal of Tourism Research, 17, 2014, 451-459. Chang, M, J Jetten, "Understanding Cultural Identification.". inJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46, 2015, 1291-1295. Etri, W, "Reaching a Central Place of Understanding Intercultural Sensitivity in ELT - Dynamic Frames for Intercultural Sensitivity.". inSSRN Electronic Journal, , 2016. Hasanova, N, "Voluntourism.". inThe Journal of Perinatal Neonatal Nursing, 31, 2017, E3-E5. Hernandez, F, B Kose, "The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.". inEducation and Urban Society, 44, 2011, 512-530. Hofstede, G, "Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context.". inOnline Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2, 2011. Jones, J, "Volunteer tourism in the global South.". in Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 14, 2014, 170-172. Kirillova, K, X Lehto, L Cai, "Volunteer Tourism and Intercultural Sensitivity: The Role of Interaction with Host Communities.". inJournal of Travel Tourism Marketing, 32, 2015, 382-400. 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Tomazos, K, "Dr. Volunteer and Mr. Tourist: Lifting the Guilt off Volunteer Tourism.". inJournal of Tourism Hospitality, 05, 2016 D Blackman A Benson, "The Role of the Psychological Contract in Managing Research Volunteer Tourism", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 27, 2010, 221-235. K Kirillova, X Lehto L Cai, "Volunteer Tourism and Intercultural Sensitivity: The Role of Interaction with Host Communities", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 32, 2015, 382-400. D Blackman A Benson, "The Role of the Psychological Contract in Managing Research Volunteer Tourism", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 27, 2010, 221-235. A Brumbaugh, "The Impact of Diversity Seeking and Volunteer Orientation on Desire for Alternative Spring Break Programs", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 27, 2010, 474-490. E Burrai, X Font J Cochrane, "Destination Stakeholders' Perceptions of Volunteer Tourism: An Equity Theory Approach", in International Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 17, 2014, 451-459. M Chang J Jetten, "Understanding Cultural Identification", in Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, vol. 46, 2015, 1291-1295. K Kirillova, X Lehto L Cai, "Volunteer Tourism and Intercultural Sensitivity: The Role of Interaction with Host Communities", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 32, 2015, 382-400. J Nadeau D Lord, "Justice motivation and place image influences on volunteer tourism: perceptions, responses, and deliberations", inJournal of Travel Tourism Marketing, , 2017, 1-14. J Park, D Kim C Zhang, "Understanding Cross-National Differences in Risk Through a Localized Cultural Perspective", in Cross-Cultural Research, vol. 50, 2015, 34-62. 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W Etri, "Reaching a Central Place of Understanding Intercultural Sensitivity in ELT - Dynamic Frames for Intercultural Sensitivity", in SSRN Electronic Journal, , 2016. K Kirillova, X Lehto L Cai, "Volunteer Tourism and Intercultural Sensitivity: The Role of Interaction with Host Communities", in Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing, vol. 32, 2015, 382-400. N Hasanova, "Voluntourism", in The Journal of Perinatal Neonatal Nursing, vol. 31, 2017, E3-E5.