Voluntary sector

The voluntary sector, also known as third sector in opposition to the public and private sectors, comprises all activities and services provided on the basis of volunteering, which refers to unpaid work accomplished within the context of a formal structure (public, private, or nonprofit). There is a conceptual debate on the limits and boundaries of what volunteering is and is not, alongside with cultural differences of voluntary practices across countries (Gallarza et al. 2013). Consequently, although there is a consensus on the significant growth of volunteering across the globe in the last decade (Wearing and McGehee 2013), its size in tourism is not known. However, a rough estimation stands for 1.6 million worldwide participating in volunteer tourism projects annually (Tourism Research and Marketing 2008).

Reasons for the emergence of volunteering in and beyond tourism can be related to the positive attitude that there is a higher degree of life satisfaction to be gained in helping...