The Caravan Opinion Research Corporation has shown in a 2009 poll that more and more people are, for a variety of reasons, taking holidays with a volunteering aim. The research also suggests that most volunteers belong to the younger age categories. Whereas volunteer holidays used to be absolutely exceptional cases of charity workers, religious groups or those with political intentions, they seem to be all the rage today. The Caravan Opinion Research Corporation discovered that two thirds of high school students in the US are happy to go on volunteer trips nowadays, less than half the adult population is willing to do the same thing and one quarter of retirees are willing to become voluntourists. Therefore, the younger you are, the more likely you are to become a volunteer. Perhaps traditionalism and saved money are the decisive factors. Out of the 1000 adults interviewed, the most common reasons for going on volunteer holidays were education or culture, spiritual assistance, health, constructing roads and agricultural assistance.
The most popular destinations were Africa, Australia and Europe. Although the trips are generally not free of charge, it is undeniable that they are a lot cheaper than what wealthy middle-aged adults would go for. Again, this may explain the huge participation of younger people in this field of tourism. Most of those interviewed would say that their purpose for volunteering is spiritual, whereby it is also purely coincidentally a very cheap way of getting somewhere which would cost a lot of cash, which youngsters often do not have. It is certainly more believable when pensioners play the spiritual card when visiting faraway places. Whatever the reasons, it is undeniable that a host of destination, particularly the African ones, can greatly benefit from this relatively new branch of travel.