Volunteer tourists and destinations: place attachment formation among volunteer tourists

This innovative study focuses on the unique and enduring emotional bond between volunteer tourists and tourism destinations. In-depth interviews with 24 Chinese volunteer tourists were conducted to construct a model of volunteer tourists' place attachment formation, highlighting its distinctiveness. The findings show that the formation of volunteer tourists' place attachment is characterised by a chain structure gradually formed with the transformation of time and space from functional attachment to natural attachment, social attachment, place symbol, and place loyalty with more emphasis on the last two stages. In this process, place attachment transforms from shallow to deep, from emotional to behavioural, and from physiological to spiritual. This study examines volunteer tourism and place attachment together for the first time, and identifies new dimensions and formation processes of volunteer tourists' place attachment, extending research in the field of 'human–place' relationship. Its findings provide valuable insights for destination governments as well as volunteer tourism enterprises and organisations to enhance product and marketing strategies.