Methodology to investigate critical discourses around world wide opportunities on organic farms as alternative tourism

The aim of this paper is to propose a possible methodology to study discourses around the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program. The WWOOF program is an exchange program that connects organic farms and travelers who are willing to work on farms on a voluntary basis for food and accommodation. Current research suggests that WWOOFing is both alternative tourism, as well as an alternative to tourism. Many WWOOF volunteers are long-term international travelers with limited financial means, who do not see themselves as commercial tourists and see WWOOFing as a way to avoid the popular tourist track. Thus, WWOOFing is a voluntary hosting exchange that avoids the commercialism of tourism. As such it espouses a different philosophy or discourse of travel from traditional farm tourism. Thus, to understand the philosophy of WWOOF, it is necessary to apply diversified methods for data collection and analysis in order to understand the critical discourses around it. This paper proposes a possible methodology to investigate critical discourses around WWOOF farms as a part of alternative tourism on the example of organic farms in New Zealand.