Volunteer and youth tourism: An implication for Eskişehir

The volunteer and the youth tourism are amongst the important types of the social tourism. The volunteer tourism is an alternative type of tourism, which contributes both the participants and the tourist receiving region, while the profit is not the main objective. On the other hand, the youth tourism includes the tourism activities of the individuals who are 15-25 years old independently from their families and/or supported by some institutions. Since their characteristics are close to each other, the assessment of the volunteer and youth tourism together constitutes the basis of this research. The participants of the volunteer tourism are mainly young people, and among the other similarities both types of tourism are objectives of the participants and the important role of the required institutional support. Despite the widespread application in the world, both volunteer and youth tourism is not at the expected level in Turkey. In this research, it was decided primarily on the analysis of the perceptions of the young people and the institutional authorities who are the main actors of volunteer and youth tourism, and also to bring proposal for the implementation. Eskişehir was determined as the research area and the research was carried out on a mixed method basis. Regarding the approaches of the college students to the volunteer and youth tourism the quantitative data collection and analysis was used and for the institutional support extent, the views of the local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGO) were analyzed through the qualitative data collection and analysis method. The aims of the college students to the participate in the volunteer and youth tourism were derived by the survey technique and 384 questionnaire were collected from the young people. Approximately one quarter of the youth don't go to the holiday during the year, on the other hand the great majority of them are approaching positively to participate in the volunteer tourism. According to the results of the explanatory factor analysis, the altruism, autonomy, going away from the daily life and meeting with different people are the main motivational factors that make the youth to participate in the volunteer tourism. In the second stage of the research, nine different interviewees from local authorities and NGO's from the city and and various districts were interviewed. The data at this stage were collected by using semi-structured interview technique and assessed through the content analysis. According to results obtained, it was observed that although the institutional authorities apporaches positively to the youth and the volunteer tourism, their supports constitute mainly of providing relevant support. The need for intermediaries in the planning and the coordination, the effects of the local people, the support of the universities and the training of the institutions are other important findings. When the findings of the research are assessed altogether, it can be observed that there is an important potential of considering the volunteer and youth tourism together in Eskişehir and that although the institutions have different point of views, they approach to the subject positively. On this basis, the implications and suggestions regarding the application of the volunteer and youth tourism which are thought to develop the social tourism in Eskişehir were provided. KeyWords: College students, youth tourism, volunteer tourism, local governments, non-governmental organizations, Eskişehir.