The demographic profiles of volunteer tourists are comparable to those of adventure tourism. The demographic profile of volunteer tourists is mainly young people without responsibilities, for example university/gap year students aged 18-25 Novelli. Mintel agrees with Novelli and adds that most projects are suitable for gap year students, hence why they dominate the volunteering market. Young career breakers aged 25 to 39 and baby boomers are also considered to participate in volunteer tourism. Similarly, Mintel reports that the demographic profiles of adventure tourist participants are primarily baby boomers aged 50 and above, millennials aged 18 to 35, families and couples and who are predominantly female. The age categories of volunteer tourism are very similar to those of adventure tourism, although the oldest generation dominates adventure tourism, while the youngest dominates volunteer tourism. Volunteering and adventure tourism are similar in that participants must be more financially stable to participate in both slots, as volunteering and adventure tourism are often more expensive than an average vacation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Previous research indicates that people are motivated to engage in volunteering and adventure tourism for different reasons, which can be considered motivators to travel. The push and pull factors for travel and destination are the motivation for tourism. For decades, volunteer tourism has become one of the fastest growing forms of travel in the world, driven by the driving force of alternative tourism and the pull of tourism. need to volunteer. Unlike volunteer tourism, adventure tourism is encouraged by the pull factor of excitement and adrenaline. Although some authors may argue that the risk of the activity is what motivates participants to engage in adventure tourism, volunteer tourism participants are generally motivated by altruistic and personal reasons. For example, professionals are motivated to participate in this form of niche tourism because of networking opportunities, competitive advantage in the job market, gaining professional experience, etc. Although personal motivation reasons may include, to add value to a resume, a willingness to learn about the culture of the host community and a desire to give back, etc. In contrast, Mintel said health and wellbeing is the main motivation for adventure tourism participants over 60, but Giddy argues it is the thrill of adventure. Wearing and Grabowski state that there are four main reasons why individuals are motivated to participate in volunteer tourism. These points include the authenticity of interaction with people from a different culture, the search for mutual friendship and trust between people, family ties and the need for change. Compared to volunteer tourism participants, adventure tourists are also motivated to participate to overcome their fear internally, externally appreciate the beauty of nature, and generally enjoy their time together as a family, etc. and adventure tourists are also motivated to challenge themselves mentally and physically. A similarity between volunteer tourism andAdventure tourism concerns baby boomer participants. Who are both motivated by the same reasons to engage in new adventures/activities because their busy career schedules and family lives have not allowed them to do so. However, now that they are children, they have moved out and have enough money and time. to spend on traveling and participating in adventures/activities. Another similarity between the two tourism niches is gap year/college students and millennials who are almost in the same age group. The gap year/college student age group starts at 18.25, while the millennial age group also starts at 18 but nevertheless ends at 35. However, they are motivated by different reasons to engage in the two forms of niche tourism. Millennials are motivated to engage in adventure tourism because of their keen interest in experiencing life, living in another country, and expanding their knowledge while traveling. While gap year or university students who participate in volunteer tourism are motivated to offer their services to make a positive contribution. contribution to the community and also acquire relevant skills needed to pursue their ideal career path. Regarding the research done by Soderman and Snead, in Guttentag, it shows that gap year students are motivated to give back to the community because of the personal benefits they gain from doing so. In other words, this implies that if the benefits of volunteering were not present, gap year students would likely not be motivated to participate in volunteering. Although volunteer tourism mainly has many positive benefits for communities, there are negative impacts. . In this section, the socio-cultural challenges of volunteer tourism to destinations will be discussed. Neglecting the needs of host communities is one of the negative impacts of volunteer tourism. Lyons and Wearing argue that not all organizations are interested in making a profit. He went on to emphasize that non-profit organizations (NGOs) are not interested in profit but rather in meeting the needs and wants of host communities. However, some studies indicate that private organizations are pressured to attract more volunteers to increase profits rather than respecting the needs and desires of host communities. This is evident in one Ecuadorian village, where tourist volunteers painted the villagers' houses while they were at work, which the villagers strongly disapproved of. This example shows that the volunteer program was not designed online to meet the real needs of residents, but rather to meet the real needs of residents. The organization assumed that it knew the needs and wants of residents without first consulting them. Volunteering does not require any skills to participate, therefore an organization often places pre-medical volunteers in programs for which they are not professionally trained, because volunteering does not require any skills to participate. very deadly for host communities, because volunteers administer medical care without being trained for this task. This leads residents to become resentful of volunteers. Another negative impact is the reduction in “demand for work and the promotion of dependency”. Volunteers offering their services for free can financially disrupt host communities, as residents are left destitute by the..3-11.