Author/s:
Suhud, Usep*
Faculty of Economics, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia (usepsuhud@feunj.ac.id)
Abstract:
The first, objective of this study is to understand the role of environmental motivation and sensation seeking personality in predicting intention to be involved in VT. The second objective is to examine whether the theory of reasoned action could be extended by adding two new variables – environmental motivation and sensation seeking personality. The last objective is to understand the difference intention in difference periods of time – within one, three, and five years; Volunteer tourism is about combination of volunteering and tourism activities that require participants to pay their own costs – transport, accommodation, meals, and even contribute to the project offered in a destination. Researchers claimed that there is an overlap between volunteer tourism and eco-tourism. This claim referred to two reasons: most of projects are relating to environment and part of motivations of the participants relate to environment. The author adapted the theory of reasoned action by adding new variables – sensation seeking personality and environmental motivation. The author considers that this is an experimental study as there has not been documented that a single environmental motivation has an influence on behavioral intention, particularly in the tourism field. The author collected data using an online survey and approached volunteers, tourists, and volunteer tourists to participate in an online survey conveniently. In total, 551 respondents participated, coming from developed and developing countries. Data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (structural equation model). Three fitted models were built representing intention within one year, three years, and five years. Almost all hypotheses in all models were accepted. This quantitative study proves that environmental motivation and sensation seeking personality have different influences on intention to be involved in VT in different periods of time. In addition, it shows that theory of reasoned action can be extended by adding new variables – environmental motivation and sensation seeking personality variables.
Keywords: volunteer tourism; volunteer tourists; environmental motivation; sensation seeking personality; theory of reasoned action; structural equation model
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2014.907
*Corresponding Author