Host self-esteem in volunteer tourism

Bibliographic Data

ID21603994
AuthorsChadley R Hollas (0000-0002-6079-2674, corresponding author), Tazim Jamal (0000-0002-6277-2247, Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA), Kyle Maurice Woosnam (0000-0001-6674-7578, Park, Recreation and Tourism Management, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA)
Year2022
Volume30
Issue4
Pages767-786
Publication date2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sustainable Tourism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-9582 • E-ISSN: 1747-7646
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09669582.2021.1888112
OpenAlexW3131409300
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited54

This research explores the host experience of volunteer tourism and presents a case study of local community farmers in the San Miguel Escobar Cooperative near Antigua, Guatemala. In this study, we sought to understand the adoption of role identities by cooperative farmers in their interactions with volunteer tourists and how this affects notions of self and self-esteem. Borrowing from prominent identity scholarship through the last few decades, we examined the proposition that, through the volunteer tourism experience, the host is able to build efficacy- and worth-based self-esteem. Twelve photo elicitation interviews were conducted with coffee-farming members of the Cooperative. Our paper describes and analyzes the farmers’ journeys through the various roles they engaged in with the visitors. The hosts’ experiences proved to be a journey that bred feelings of nervousness and fear, but positive views of the self and improved self-esteem emerged in the analysis. The results demonstrate the importance of micro-sociological empirical studies of role identities and self-other relationships in volunteer tourism and contributes towards theory building as well

Economic growth · Economics · Empirical research · Feeling · Participant observation · Political science · Public relations · Scholarship · Self-esteem · Social science · Sociology · Tourism · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Hospitality and Tourism Education · Psychology · Social Psychology · Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development

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