Volunteer tourists' satisfaction and future behavioral intention

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the volunteer tourists? satisfaction with their volunteer tourism experiences and the relationship of the overall satisfaction to their future behavioral intention specifically, intention to revisit and intention to recommend. Although previous research has explored volunteer tourism motivation, experiences and satisfaction, but less research is done to explore the volunteer tourists? satisfaction with respect to their expectations and perceptions. Thus, this study seeks to determine volunteer tourists? expectations and perceptions of their volunteer tourism experiences by measuring their satisfaction level using six experiences attributes. A conceptual model with the concept of the Expectancy-Disconfirmation is used to examine the overall satisfaction among volunteer tourists who had participated with the volunteer program at Batu Puteh Village for the past three years. A sample of 38 respondents was surveyed with online survey questionnaire. A series of analyses were performed using PASW 18. The results of the study illustrates overall motivational factors of volunteer tourists reflected previous studies as majority of the respondents went on their volunteer tourism trip with a desire to experience something completely new and interact with the local people. Moreover, there are significant differences between the expectation and performance of the volunteer tourism experience attributes. By using the Expectancy-Disconfirmation model for predicting overall satisfaction, „Project Tasks” is the main element in terms of Negative Disconfirmation among volunteer tourists then followed by „Personal Achievement? and „Authentic Experience? attributes. However, overall satisfaction level tended towards the high end of the satisfaction scale which suggests that the volunteer tourism experience at Batu Puteh Village provides volunteer tourists with a satisfactory experience. Regression analysis was conducted to test the relationship between overall satisfaction and future behavioural intentions. The results of the study showed that even though the volunteer tourists had a high satisfaction level with the overall volunteer tourism experiences, a significantly lower proportion of volunteers intended to revisit Batu Puteh Village but high proportion will provide positive recommendation. The next finding showed no significant difference between volunteer tourists? overall satisfaction and year of visit; the levels of overall satisfaction of the volunteer tourists are the same. Based on the results, this study concludes that understanding volunteer tourists? motivation, expectation and perception can help to maximize their volunteer tourism experiences and promote loyalty.