Visitor centre staffing: Involving volunteers

Volunteer involvement in visitor centres has received little attention by tourism researchers despite the critical role staff play in welcoming tourists to a destination and promoting tourism activities. The community function of visitor centres - of which volunteering is part - has also been underplayed in previous research. Using data from a survey and interviews with visitor centre managers in Australia, this paper investigates the rationales for staffing visitor centres with volunteers and/or paid employees and, related to motivations for volunteering, the factors influencing the attractiveness of visitor centre volunteer programmes. The dominant rationales for involving volunteers are need, community involvement, visitor experience, and the personal qualities and motivations of volunteers. Visitor centre volunteering is attractive because of location and local pride, interactions with tourists and social relationships with other volunteers, and the reputation of the visitor centre and its volunteer programme.     

Reassessing welfare reform data: a response to cherry

Abstract

This is a response to Robert Cherry's comment on the article, “Welfare as We [Don't] Know It: A Review and Feminist Critique of Welfare Reform Research” that appeared in the 10(2) issue of Feminist Economics. This response argues that while some combination of welfare reform, the booming economy in the late 1990s, and changes in economic policy all worked together to decrease caseloads and increase employment rates among welfare leavers, these are incomplete measures of the impact of welfare reform on the lives of lone mothers. This paper also argues that the effects of welfare reform on lone mothers are more mixed than Cherry acknowledges. This paper concludes that when one holistically examines low-income lone mothers' lives, it is premature to declare welfare reform a success.     

Book review

Tourism Marketing. By Salah Wahab, Jack Crampon, and L. Rothfield. London, England: Tourism International, 1976. 273 pp. U.S. $16.00

Tourism in the Bahamas and Bermuda: Two Case Studies. By Brian H. Archer. Bangor, Wales: University of Wales Press, 1977. Pp. ix, 87. £3.25

Park Planning Handbook: Fundamentals of Physical Planning for Parks and Recreation Areas. By Monty L. Christiansen. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1977. Pp. xiv, 413. Hardcover: $18.95

Educating for Leisure‐Centered Living. By Charles K. Bright‐bill and Tony A. Mobley. (2nd Edition—Revised). New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1977. Pp. viii, 128. Paperback: $4.95

Private and Commercial Recreation: A Text and Reference. By Arlin F. Epperson. New York: John Wiley & Sons Publishing Company, Inc., 1977. Pp. 385. Hardcover: $15.95

The Economic Impact of Parks. A report prepared for the Federal/Provincial Parks Conference. By the Canadian Outdoor Recreation Research Committee. Toronto: Ontario Research Council on Leisure, 1975. Pp. 107. $4.50

A Model for Planning and Managing National Parks. By Laurence Prosser. Center of Leisure Studies, University of Oregon, 1977. Pp. 456. $25.00

Delivery of Community Leisure Services: An Holistic Approach. By James F. Murphy and Dennis R. Howard. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1977. Pp. vii, 219. Paperback: $9.75

Recreation Leadership. 3rd edition. By Maryhelen Vannier. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1977. Pp. 387. Hardcover: $12.50

Leisure: An Introduction. Edited by Hilmi Ibrahim and Fred Martin. Los Alamitos: Hwong Publishing Company, 1977. Pp. 360

Outdoor Recreation in America: Trends, Problems and Opportunities. 3rd edition. By Clayne R. Jensen. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1977. Pp. 269. Hardcover: $12.95

A Research Study into Provision for Recreation in the Highlands and Islands: Phase 1—Areas Affected by Oil‐Related Development. Research Reports 22, 23, and 31. Tourism and Recreation Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1976 and 1977. Pp. 339, 411, and 145.

Research Study into Provision for Recreation in the Highlands and Islands: Phase 2—Regional Perspective: A Commentary by J. A. Long, J. T. Coppock, and B. S. Duffield. Research Report 37. Tourism and Recreation Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 1978. 110 pp.

The Environmental Impact of Outdoor Recreation. By Geoffrey Wall and Cynthia Wright. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: Department of Geography Publication Series, Faculty of Environmental Studies. 1977, 69 pp. $5.00.

Avocational Counseling Manual—A Complete Guide to Leisure Guidance. By Robert Overs, Sharon Taylor, and Catherine Adkins. Washington, D.C.: Hawkins and Associates, Inc., 1977, 203 pp.

Leisure and Recreation: Introduction and Overview. By Clayne R. Jensen. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, 1977, 295 pp. Paperback $13.50.

The Joy of Sport. By Michael Novak. New York: Basic Books, 1976. Pp. 358. $10.95     

The development of socially responsible investment in South Africa: experience and evolution of SRI in global markets

Sustainability practices, particularly those relating to Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), have still to be fully evolved in a developing country context. This article considers international trends in SRI and how these may relate to South Africa. It considers how, internationally, SRI has become increasingly motivated by the business case for risk-management and therefore how it may have the potential to offer superior returns (as demonstrated by recent experience in the United States). It examines the relevance of SRI trends to South Africa, where the concept of SRI still faces further structural development, and reviews the performance of funds operating in the South African SRI arena.     

The German model of employee relations on trial: negotiated and unilaterally imposed change in multi‐national companies

This article investigates the effects of negotiated and unilaterally imposed change on employee relations in the German subsidiaries of a Finnish and a German multi‐national company (MNC). We look at how the strategies affect the sustainability of the current German model of employee relations and highlight some of the disadvantages of this model for global MNCs.