Logo_Service & Tourism: Current Challenges_eng

Personnel-technology As a Key Element of the System Management in Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Vol. 20 No. 4 (2026)

HOSPITALITY VOLUNTEERS IN TOURISM: THEIR ROLE IN SHAPING TOURIST EXPERIENCES AND DEVELOPING DESTINATIONS

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22412/2414-9063-2026-20-4-40-49
Submitted
October 16, 2026
Published
October 16, 2026

Abstract

The article examines hospitality volunteering as an emerging form of voluntary activity and explores its role in shaping tourist experiences and developing tourist destinations. The relevance of the study is determined by the transformation of approaches to tourism development, whereby the quality of visitors’ experiences is shaped not only by infrastructure and service quality, but also by the nature of direct interactions between tourists and the host destination, including its social and cultural environment. The study traces the emergence of hospitality volunteering within the Russian volunteer movement, identifies the main stages of its institutional development, and examines contemporary forms of its organization at the regional level. The main areas of volunteer activity are systematized, including information and advisory support, tourist navigation, assistance in organizing visitors’ stays, intercultural communication, event support, destination promotion, preservation of cultural and natural heritage, and the development of social and inclusive tourism. Particular attention is paid to international practices of organizing specialized volunteer associations, the involvement of volunteers in tourist information centres, and the implementation of public hospitality programmes in Azerbaijan, Japan, Türkiye, and South Korea. The study establishes that the distinctive feature of hospitality volunteering lies in the direct involvement of volunteers in the interaction between tourists and the host destination. Hospitality volunteers perform not only organizational and service-­related functions but also act as intermediaries between visitors and the local sociocultural environment, communicating the destination’s cultural characteristics, tourism resources, and values.

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