Visitor centre staffing: involving volunteers

Abstract

Volunteer involvement in visitor centres has received little attention by tourism researchers despite thecritical role staff play in welcoming tourists to a destination and promoting tourism activities. Thecommunity function of visitor centres e of which volunteering is part e has also been underplayed inprevious research. Using data from a survey and interviews with visitor centre managers in Australia, thispaper investigates the rationales for staffing visitor centres with volunteers and/or paid employees and,related to motivations for volunteering, the factors influencing the attractiveness of visitor centrevolunteer programmes. The dominant rationales for involving volunteers are need, communityinvolvement, visitor experience, and the personal qualities and motivations of volunteers. Visitor centrevolunteering is attractive because of location and local pride, interactions with tourists and social relationships with other volunteers, and the reputation of the visitor centre and its volunteer programme.