Volunteer recruitment and selection: evidence from the visitor attraction sector

Recruitment and selection are important factors in the development and preservation of the tourism volunteer workforce. In the visitor attraction (VA) sector, in particular, it is estimated that volunteers constitute up to 51% of the total workforce. However, time constraints and lack of resources often limit organisations’ ability to prioritise recruitment and selection practices in a systematic way. Furthermore, studies of volunteering have mainly considered the volunteers’ perspective and not that of organisations. Our work adopts a mixed-methods research approach, involving data collection through self-completed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a number of VA representatives across Scotland. This chapter illustrates the main findings of the study including the main challenges faced by VAs and offers several recommendations for both theoretical and practical applications.