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d ฮอลล์ 2008)The studies that have applauded the intan- gible benefits of volunteer tourism have primarily relied on statements about personal growth or intercultural understanding made by volunteers (e.g. Wearing, 2001; Brown, 2005; McGehee and Santos, 2005; Lepp, 2008). However, such comments may be influenced by bias, as some volunteers may make state- ments that they believe are desirable or ratio- nalise the cost of a trip. For example, Ver Beek (2006) found that over half of his study’s respondents claimed to have increased their donations towards the agency that had organised their mission trip, but when Ver Beek checked donation records, he found that 75% of the participants had not sent any direct donations to the agency in the two years fol- lowing the trip, and overall donations, made either directly or via church offerings, increased by only a small percentage. Ver Beek’s study, therefore, also raises a second question, which is whether attitudes felt and expressed by volunteers during their trips are enduring, as is suggested by Brown (2005) and McGehee and Santos (2005). The possibility that such attitudes are not always lasting was voiced by a project staff member surveyed by Coghlan (2008), as the staff member states, ‘The [volunteers’] commitment is hard to gauge, as many were committed while on site but have shown little long-term interest since returning home’ (p. 187). Additionally, even if volunteers’ comments reflect their genuine feelings, it should not be assumed that changes in a volunteer’s attitude towards an individual are comple- mented by changes in the volunteer’s attitude towards that individual’s nation or culture. For instance, Raymond and Hall (2008), who researched the role of sending organisations
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