Visitor centre staffing: Involving volunteers

Volunteer involvement in visitor centres has received little attention by tourism researchers despite the critical role staff play in welcoming tourists to a destination and promoting tourism activities. The community function of visitor centres – of which volunteering is part – has also been underplayed in previous research. Using data from a survey and interviews with visitor centre managers in Australia, this paper 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 centre volunteer programmes. The dominant rationales for involving volunteers are need, community involvement, visitor experience, and the personal qualities and motivations of volunteers. Visitor centre volunteering 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.

► Volunteering is part of the community function of visitor centres.
► Multiple rationale for staffing visitor centres with volunteers.
► Need, community involvement, visitor experience, and volunteers’ personal qualities.
► Visitor centres are attractive places to volunteer.
► Attractive features include location and local pride, social interactions, and reputation.