The underdog effect: Towards a conceptual framework for enhancing voluntourism

ABSTRACT

Voluntourism is a unique tourism pattern which got considerable attention recently, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and the intense search to promote and revive all the possible tourist patterns in order to support the tourism industry. This paper studied and analyzed voluntourism from a business perspective by developing Business Model Canvas (BMC) to support this tourism pattern. In order to develop Business Model Canvas for Voluntourism (BMC4V), this study relied on a Delphi Technique. A total of 22 experts, academics, stakeholders and officials active in voluntourism were invited to four-round Delphi workshops to identify the main components of the voluntourism industry. The developed BMC4V is structured from nine building blocks key partners, key activities, key resources, value propositions, customer relationships, customer segments, channels, cost structure and revenue streams. The main contribution of this study is presenting BMC4V and guidelines for the stakeholders in ethically supporting the voluntourism industry. The results revealed that voluntourism has great potential to be a promising tourism pattern if we consider it a business model and not only a leisure tourism activity. Additionally, this study presented a key guideline for the main five actors in the voluntourism industry (voluntourists, sending organizations, servicing organizations, hosting organizations and government) to set this tourism pattern on the right track. Management implications Most of the scientific literature that discussed or analyzed voluntourism indicated that there are many negative impacts of this tourism pattern because of many malpractices. Accordingly, these negative impacts were exacerbated, putting voluntourism activities in the crosshairs and criticisms. This study seeks to present a different perspective on dealing with voluntary tourism, not only as a tourism model, but also by presenting it as a business model. Applying Business Model Canvas for Voluntourism (BMC4V) opens up new strategies and policies for decision-makers to enhance this tourism pattern, reduce crises and the negative effects associated with it and optimise these activities. This leads to a reconsideration of voluntourism as one of the promising tourism patterns that have the potentials to revive the tourism industry, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and the scrambling for discovering and promoting all available and possible tourism patterns. In this context, this study presented a comprehensive business model that presented a clear and precise picture of all the actors involved in the voluntourism industry, as well as presented suggested key guidelines for the most effective voluntourism actors in order to restructure, develop, and raising the efficiency of this tourism pattern from a business perspective.