61% of Volunteer Travel Operators Expect Sales to Rise in 2009
Littleton, CO, May 6, 2009 – According to a recent survey completed by Lasso Communications, 61% of volunteer travel operators predict that their 2009 sales will exceed those of 2008. The purpose of the survey was to get an accurate pulse of the volunteer travel industry and the results show that the field is booming.
“Travelers have high interest in the kind of authentic, personal travel experiences available through volunteering, “comments Christina Heyniger of XOLA Consulting. “Add to this the stresses of the current financial environment and the desire to know travel expenditures have value beyond their immediate leisure benefits, and we see an excellent climate for volunteer tourism.”
Based on the 28 companies that participated in the survey, it was found that:
- 61% expect to send more volunteers abroad in 2009 than 2008
- 18% expect to send the same amount of volunteers in 2009 as in 2008
- 21% expect to send less volunteers abroad in 2009 than 2008
The total number of volunteers sent abroad from the US by these 28 companies was 20,089. The highest number of volunteers sent by one company was 3,400 and the smallest was 10.
Several of the companies that are down year on year have blamed bad strategic moves, poor
marketing or strategic shifts, as the reason for their lower numbers in 2009. The companies that are growing in 2009 tend to be the smaller to mid-size companies who find they are agile enough to adjust to the market’s demands and change their messaging to appeal to changing traveler motivations.
Of the 28 companies surveyed, the average number of countries offered per provider was 10, with Peru, Costa Rica and South Africa being the most popular countries. When grouped by continent, South America seems to be the leading continent of volunteer travel followed by Africa and Asia. The most popular volunteer activity for the majority of respondents was building and teaching, followed by community development and conservation.
The companies surveyed had to meet stringent criteria in order to obtain an accurate pulse of the industry. Travelers must pay to volunteer, the companies cannot be faith based, must have an office in the US and must offer travelers the chance to volunteer for 4 or more straight days. Research has been previously done on the total number of volunteers going abroad, but this is the first survey to get a specific indicator on the ‘pay to volunteer’ niche.
To read the full report visit: http://lassocommunications.com/research.htm
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Lasso Communications is a voluntourism consulting firm. At Lasso we try to further the volunteer travel field by helping companies with strategic decisions, marketing campaigns and research. Through the http://www.voluntourismgal.com blog we seek to help the field share best practices and learn from each other. To learn more visit: http://lassocommunications.com, call 303-898-3376 or email alexia@lassocommunications.com
April 2009 Survey Reveals That, in the Current Economic Downturn, Travelers Find Meaning in Volunteering Abroad
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, April 29, 2009 -Today GeckoGo releases the results of Volunteer Travel
Insights 2009, the largest international volunteer survey ever conducted. Globally, 2481
consumers were surveyed on their opinions and motivations behind volunteer travel. The survey
was conducted in conjunction with Bradt Travel Guides and Lasso Communications in April
2009.
“This survey provides a great insight into the motivations of those looking to volunteer abroad.
Demographic as well as psychographic elements were analyzed and the result is a clear, and
sometimes surprising, picture of the volunteer traveler,” comments Alexia Nestora of
VoluntourismGal.com
Key findings include:
Volunteer vacationers help out at home too
A large number of people who volunteer abroad have also volunteered in their home country
(60%), with another 33% interested in volunteering who haven’t yet found the right opportunity
Females volunteer more than men
Sixty-four percent (64%) of females are currently volunteering or have volunteered before,
compared to only 51% of males.
Motivations for volunteering are altruistic
Travelers looking to volunteer abroad want to be useful (most important to 38%) and have a
personal learning experience (most important to 21%), while convenience is surprisingly not
important to 48% of the respondents. In terms of activities, 62% of respondents cited they
wanted to do humanitarian work, 56% wanted to do conservation and teaching, followed by
community development at 53% and building at 28%.
Volunteers stay abroad a while
For those that have volunteered abroad, the duration of their trip tended to be longer than
expected, with 51% of respondents going on a trip for more than one month and 76% traveling
for at least two weeks.
Volunteer solo
The majority of travelers went on their trip alone (57%), 31% traveled with friends (or church
groups), and only 9% traveled with a relationship partner.
Top volunteer destinations
The top overall volunteer travel destinations were Peru (23%) and Brazil (14%). For Americans,
the top destinations were Peru (16%) and Costa Rica (15%).
Volunteers find their trips meaningful
Seventy-seven percent (77%) of respondents believed that their trip was very meaningful, 22%
found it was meaningful, and less than 1% felt that their trip was not meaningful in any way. A
constant battle in the voluntourism field is to effectively manage expectations of the volunteer –
the fact that almost 100% of respondents found their experience meaningful in some way shows
a major victory for the field.
Volunteer programs are not too commercial
On the subject of commercialization, 29% of respondents found that voluntourism has become
too commercialized, 23% thought that it should be more commercialized, and 48% thought the
level of commercialization was just enough. The reasons volunteers cited for wanting more
commercialization were related to the ability to recruit more volunteers to go abroad and
potentially reducing costs.
For a full report, visit http://www.geckogo.com/volunteer/report2009
About GeckoGo
Launched in October 2008, GeckoGo is a travel planning web site that helps travelers identify
what to do and where to go based on their interests. It is the fastest growing source of unique
user generated travel content. GeckoGo is based in Mountain View, California and Vancouver,
Canada.
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Alexia Nestora
303.898.3376
alexia@lassocommunications.com
http://www.geckogo.com
