VOLUNTEER TOURISM AS TOURIST TREND

Abstract

Modern tourists on their vacations seek for an experiences and activities and one of the possible solutions for active vacation is offered in the form of volunteer tourism. Volunteer tourism is a tourist trend (volunteer plus tourism) that provides humanitarian work and the contribution of tourists to the local community during the holiday season. Through volunteering tourist is directly acquainted with the destination, its culture, problems and local customs and for the tourists through their humanitarian work is provided a sense of value. Volunteer activities can be carried out in the fields of ecology, agriculture, orphanages, animal care, heritage rebuilding, education, etc. In addition to the positive side, the negative side of volunteer tourism has also been criticized. The main argument for this is the attitude that this tourist product implies underdevelopment and poverty as a „tourist attractions”. For the purpose of this study, a group interview was carried out that includes the students to determine if they were familiar with the concept of voluntarism, whether they would go on this kind of tourist vacation and also what is their opinion on voluntarism.