The value of volunteers in tourism and events: A leadership perspective

Abstract

This article is part of a three-year research project on volunteerism and the value for organisations employing volunteers, volunteers themselves and finally the tourists who meet the volunteers in various settings. Employing a mixed methods approach, we conducted a mutual research collaboration between the Danish Destination Management Office (DMO) VisitAarhus and Dania Academy within the Frascati research frame. The focus of this article is on the leaders of the volunteers and how they facilitate the conditions that enable volunteers to create the aforementioned value. This was done through in-depth semi-structured interviews with volunteer leaders from across Europe. We focus specifically on how leaders perceive the volunteers, how they assess the value that the volunteers create and, finally on what motivates the volunteers. The result of this article is a conceptual model that creates insights into the elements that help foster an identity among the volunteers and thereby increases the value that they produce.