Evaluation of Voluntourism
Evaluation of Voluntourism
A trend has started in the recent years, where people participate in organizations that commonly claim to be helping developing countries. This trend is fuelled by the gap year phenomenon, which is defined as “a period of time between 3 and 24 months taken out of education or a work career.” (Jones, 2004) With enthusiasm of “making a difference”, more and more people choose voluntourism, combination of tourism and volunteer projects, as their gap year holiday option. Despite the well-intended enthusiasm, opinions regarding the contribution of voluntourism on local community are divided. The primary issue of debate is whether voluntourism provide help to the local communities. While some researchers using surveys find local people satisfied with volunteer tourists, other research investigating quality, tasks, motivation and local need of voluntourism have found it doing more harm than good. Such a harmful trend has made the UK director of VSO, one of the baggiest and earliest international development charity, warn “Young people want to make difference through volunteering, but they would better off travelling…rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact…” (Ward, 2007) In this paper, we will evaluate both side of the debate and carefully assess the value of voluntourism for local community.
In order to assess the benefit given by volunteer tourists, it is essential to look at the quality of the helpers. Unskilled volunteers may be a burden to local communities that have to take care of them. As Stephan peck, operations director at the Scout Association, puts it “[bad volunteers] are like a cancer” (Ainsworth, 2012). Therefore, the volunteer selection process is critical in recruiting needed and appropriate volunteers that benefit local communities. While supporters of voluntourism claims those volunteers as satisfying, looking into their selection experience shall make it clear that these tourists are hardly qualified as
A trend has started in the recent years, where people participate in organizations that commonly claim to be helping developing countries. This trend is fuelled by the gap year phenomenon, which is defined as “a period of time between 3 and 24 months taken out of education or a work career.” (Jones, 2004) With enthusiasm of “making a difference”, more and more people choose voluntourism, combination of tourism and volunteer projects, as their gap year holiday option. Despite the well-intended enthusiasm, opinions regarding the contribution of voluntourism on local community are divided. The primary issue of debate is whether voluntourism provide help to the local communities. While some researchers using surveys find local people satisfied with volunteer tourists, other research investigating quality, tasks, motivation and local need of voluntourism have found it doing more harm than good. Such a harmful trend has made the UK director of VSO, one of the baggiest and earliest international development charity, warn “Young people want to make difference through volunteering, but they would better off travelling…rather than wasting time on projects that have no impact…” (Ward, 2007) In this paper, we will evaluate both side of the debate and carefully assess the value of voluntourism for local community.
In order to assess the benefit given by volunteer tourists, it is essential to look at the quality of the helpers. Unskilled volunteers may be a burden to local communities that have to take care of them. As Stephan peck, operations director at the Scout Association, puts it “[bad volunteers] are like a cancer” (Ainsworth, 2012). Therefore, the volunteer selection process is critical in recruiting needed and appropriate volunteers that benefit local communities. While supporters of voluntourism claims those volunteers as satisfying, looking into their selection experience shall make it clear that these tourists are hardly qualified as
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