Paper Title
Attitudes of Thai Ho STS towards Foreign Volunteer Tourists
Abstract
This study investigates the attitudes of Thai hosts towards Foreign volunteer tourists. Volunteer tourism programs
offered by two host organizations in Thailand: The Elephant World in Kanchanaburi province, and the Little Friendly Farm
Project in Rajchaburi province were selected as case studies. An interpretive paradigm utilizing qualitative data collection
methods (semi-structure interviews and participant observations) was employed. The informants included 9 hosts at the
Elephant World, and 4 hosts at the Little Friendly Farm Project, all of which were selected by purposive sampling and
snowball sampling. The analysis of the data showed that all of the respondents portray favorable attitudes towards volunteer
tourists. Their attitudes were mainly based on two key factors: the volunteer tourists' conduct and performance, and the
benefits gained from the volunteer tourists.
Index Terms- volunteer tourism, attitudes, Thai hosts, foreign volunteer tourists