Appealing to Goodwill or YOLO-Promoting Conservation Volunteering to Millennials

Abstract

Volunteer travel opportunities are more plentiful than ever and are now offered worldwide, with conservation projects being an increasingly popular choice. Some of the emerging questions in this field are concerned with the effective communication of these opportunities to young people. One theory that could guide the creation of these persuasive campaigns for conservation volunteering is regulatory focus theory. By adopting this theory, we reveal yet another possibility for understanding motivations of conservation volunteers. Results of the experiment suggest promotion messages are better received (more persuasive) because they induce expectations in line with general view of conservation volunteering as a hedonic experience. Moreover, this study is the first one of its kind to show this important effect of environmental attitudes on individuals' responses to promotional messages about conservation volunteering travel.Résumé Les occasions de voyage bénévole sont plus nombreuses que jamais et désormais offertes partout dans le monde, les projets de conservation en constituant un choix de plus en plus populaire. Dans ce domaine, des questions émergentes portent sur la communication efficace de ces occasions aux jeunes. Une des théories qui pourraient orienter la création de ces campagnes de persuasion pour le bénévolat dans le domaine de la conservation est la théorie à focalisation réglementaire. En l'adoptant, nous pouvons mieux comprendre les motivations des bénévoles oeuvrant dans le domaine de la conservation. Les résultats de l'expérimentation suggèrent & Marianna Strzelecka marianna.strzelecka@lnu.se

Examining Millennials’ Global Citizenship Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions to Engage in Environmental Volunteering

“…Indeed, several recent studies seem to support this contra-narrative illustrating that millennials' focus on their lifestyles and fighting for environmental well-being is simply a way to express their lifestyle and how they would like to be perceived [66,67]. Therefore, especially for millennials, a quest for positive emotional states and hedonic experiences can reinforce the informed ethical travel choices within this group [68,69]. And while millennials are more likely to consider travelling with a higher focus on individuality and flexibility, [70,71] point out "increasing levels of concern over the impacts of travel" within this group [65].…”

“…Quite the opposite, contemporary environmental volunteering is far from the ideal of global citizenship; however, the study illustrated that despite problems, millennials like to think of themselves as global citizens when they travel to volunteer for nature environmental projects. And while millennials may prefer to engage in projects that enable them to view themselves as global citizens, their behavior may also be driven by hedonic values [69].…”

Tourism and Altruistic Intention: Volunteer Tourism Development and Self-Interested Value

“…Opportunities for volunteer tourism are more abundant than ever in the global tourism industry [1]. It is undeniable that volunteer tourism is increasing and becoming a popular tourism product/choice in recent years [2,3].…”

“…It is undeniable that volunteer tourism is increasing and becoming a popular tourism product/choice in recent years [2,3]. The growth of volunteer tourism has motivated the scholars and the practitioners to conduct a research to explore the behaviors of such tourists and its contributions to the host community [1,2]. For instance, studies have examined related topics, such as volunteer tourism motivations, experiences, attributes, and benefits [3,4].…”

Do Millennials Care About NPOs? Intergenerational Differences in Attitudes Towards Nonprofit Organizations

“…In recent years, an additional explanatory factor for attitudes towards NPOs has been proposed: Intergenerational differences. More specifically, a number of both practice-oriented (Feldmann et al 2015;Saratovsky, Feldmann, and Case 2013;Feldmann 2016) as well as academic works and studies (Nisbett and Strzelecka 2017;Gorczyca and Hartman 2017;Smith, Cohen, and Pickett 2014) have suggested that the so-called Millennial generation in Western countries, the cohort born roughly between 1982 and 2002 (Howe and Strauss 2009), is different enough from previous generations with regards to their attitudes towards NPOs that they warrant closer practical as well as scientific scrutiny. Describing and analyzing the peculiarities, potentials, and pitfalls of Millennials' attitudes towards NPOs presupposes that the Millennial generation is indeed different from other generations in terms of attitudes towards NPOs.…”