Volunteer tourism: Is it more beneficial to the volunteers and operators than the destination?

Volunteer tourism: Is it more beneficial to the volunteers and operators than the destination?

Keywords: Volunteer Tourism, volunteer tourists, authenticity, development, experiences, destinations

"Volunteer tourism applies to those tourists who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research into aspects of society or environment" (Wearing 2001).

The tourism industry has in the recent years seen the rapid rise in tourist travelling for volunteering purposes.

Widely accepted as "Volunteer Tourism", the concept is said to have begun in the late 20th century and it aims to allow those seeking a tourism experience that is beneficial to them and the other parties involved but the question remains; who is benefiting the most from this phenomenon? Is it the volunteers and the operators or the destinations, or perhaps both?

Wearing argues that as well as adding to their personal development, it also aims to contribute positively and directly towards the social, natural and/or economic environments they are giving their time and effort to (Wearing 2001).
With that said, travel is often considered only as either for business or pleasure therefore, putting the idea of "voluntourism" in uncertainty.
It may be argued that Volunteer tourism is formed around a weak conceptual basis which is generally defined rather simply in terms of participants' actions while on holiday, ignoring elements such as reasons for participation, behaviour, and influencing forces (Butler and Tomazos, 2010).

As it appears, a lot academic research and even the media mainly just put their focus on the positives and benefits of volunteer tourism and not the possible negatives of this tourism sector. Some of the issues that may raise questions are a neglect of locals' desires, a hindering of work progress and completion of unsatisfactory work, a disruption of local economies, a reinforcement of conceptualisations of the 'other' and rationalisations of poverty, and an instigation of cultural changes (Guttentag, 2009).

Volunteer tourists usually get involved in activities such teaching in schools, harvesting crops, planting trees and offering health-related services (Singh etl. 2003) and one reason why the volunteer tourism sector has expanded so rapidly is that many volunteer tourism projects have little or non-existent requirements regarding the skill set one needs to participate however, the motives, impacts and intentions for engaging in such activities remains questionable for most.

It is fair to state that academic interest in volunteer tourism remains one-sided as they are usually focussed primarily on the identities, behaviours, values, motives and personal development of the volunteers and not the destination (Guttentag, 2009).
Another potential issue with volunteer tourism may be that the volunteer and the organisations they represent may actually be carrying out development activities that do not match what the host populations had desired and this potential problem may be worsened by the fact that a large number of volunteer tourism projects, involve volunteers from developed countries working in far less privileged nations.


It seems to prove difficult for academic researchers to determine a balance on the effects of volunteer tourism and whom it benefits the most because of the different components and stakeholders that are involved but this is an industry that is growing and showing no signs of slowing down. One of the reasons is probably the recent economic situations which have affected a lot of organisations and may be the reason for the increase in the interest into the voluntary sector.
With a lot of business organisations being forced to make cuts in terms of staff numbers and spending budgets which could affect their training programmes for new recruits hence encouraging (for example recent university graduates) to consider getting into the voluntary sector as they seek to gain some experience in their desired or career related fields.

Perhaps it is a win-win situation for all the parties involved and even though the people that are going to these communities to carry to offer their services though they might not be professionals or fully skilled, they might bring exposure and popularity to the destination through word of mouth to people who might not have been familiar with the destination or the idea.



References:

Guttentag, D. A., 2009. The Possible Negative Impacts of Volunteer Tourism (online) Int. J. Tourism Res. 11, 537-551 [accessed 20.04.2011]

<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8c3d38be-47b7-47a2-9569-949c231f116b%40sessionmgr111&vid=7&hid=105>


Stebbins, R. A. and Graham, M. eds., 2004. Volunteering as leisure/leisure as volunteering: an international assessment. Wallingford: CABI Publishing

Wearing, S. 2001. Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that make a Difference. CABI Publishing: New York.

Commentary on Tourism Conference Paper: by Helen Spiteri 0806209

Volunteer tourism: Is it more beneficial to the volunteers and operators than the destination?

The paper firstly provides a definition of volunteer tourism and there is a brief discussion about the possible positives and negative impacts of voluntourism which raises some interesting issues on the subject. What can be further considered is that it may not necessarily be that volunteer tourism is more beneficial to the volunteers and operator than the destination, but more so that it is beneficial for the volunteers or operator or destination. The volunteer should not be considered in the same thread as the operator who may be in it for purely economical reasons, whereas the tourist does have altruistic motivations. Although a cynical view, particularly if payment is taken from the 'voluntourist', Clemmons (2008, in Benson 2011, p.18) states that when the provider of voluntourism is an organisation rather than a charity, 'satisfying the self' (the customer) becomes more of an issue, so there is certainly more of a benefit for them rather than the destination.

There could be more of discussion about how much the volunteer tourism sector is worth to the overall tourism industry. TRAM (2008, in Benson, 2011) suggests that "the total expenditure generated by volunteer tourism is likely to be between £832 million and £1.3 billion". This could lend support to the argument that the sector is more concerned with economical issues rather than selfless motivations. Indeed, this may also be a focus because of the increase in organisations now involved in the voluntourism sector.

While the author makes some reference towards the actions that are undertaken by the 'voluntourist', there could be further discussions regarding the motivations of the tourist, essentially what leads them to make the initial decision to volunteer. The author states that the motives and intentions for volunteering are questionable which is supported by Benson (2011) and Novelli (2005). However, there could be more discussion about the type of tourist who volunteers, in particular as indentified by Novelli (2005) the gap year market, who are very much focussed on developing their curriculum vitae. It would also be relevant to mention the length of time that volunteers are involved in projects, for example it could be questionable that volunteering for a year would be more beneficial to both the tourist and destination than if they volunteered for a few days. This could be discussed alongside the possible different types of projects that can be undertaken. Again this may lend support to the argument (a project involving building a school may be more beneficial to the destination than tourists helping at an animal sanctuary to wash elephants), essentially the differences between development and conservation work. Indeed, it would also be relevant to discuss the fact that voluntourism may now involve more of a holiday theme, as more and more tour operators are providing packaged options (Benson, 2011). As Maxwell (2006, in Benson, 2011, p.17) states "voluntourists can head to far flung parts of the world to build walls, dig fields and care for animals in wildlife sanctuaries, working by day and partying by night".

The conclusion of the paper however provides a good summation of the debate, highlighting that current studies focus primarily on the volunteer rather than the destination and that the volunteer tourism market is growing and diverse. There is also focus given to the economic issues, both in terms of the operator, tourist and destination. This essay therefore provides a good basis for a topic that is increasingly being debated.

References:

Benson, A.M. (2011) Volunteer tourism: Theory framework to practical applications, Routledge: Oxon

Brown, S. (2005) Travelling with a purpose: Understanding the motives and benefits of volunteer vacationers. Current Issues in Tourism, volume 8, issue 6, pp. 479-496

McGehee, N.G. and Santos, C.A. (2005) Social change, discourse and volunteer tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, volume 32, issue 3, pp. 760-779

Novelli, M. (2005) Niche Tourism: Contemporary issues, trends and cases, Butterworth- Heinemann: Oxford

Wearing, S. (2001) Volunteer tourism: experiences that make a difference, CABI Publishing: Oxon

The author of this discussion paper has effectively explained Volunteer tourism and whether it is more beneficial to the volunteers and operators than the destination. The paper engages well with the strand as Volunteer tourism is indeed authentic and seeking meaning in the tourist experience. It is very interesting to read about volunteer tourism and to hear that some people travel to specific areas for the intention of helping people in need. Volunteer tourism has become an increasingly popular activity and involves combining travel with voluntary work.

As explained in the discussion paper, Volunteer tourism is one of the main growing segments in the contemporary tourism industry which nowadays has become a niche market in the society. This type of tourism segment started in the late 1990 and early 2000 and is now experiencing a 'volunteer tourism rush' which is influenced by an ever increasing 'guilt-conscious' society. Because of the increase in volunteer projects, destinations and target market, volunteer tourism has become a 'mass niche market'. As discussed in the paper, the tourism segment is mainly focused on 'altruistic and self-developmental experiences' that people can achieve when volunteering in such destinations. Bussell and Forbes (2002)

Volunteer tourism involves people to offer their services to change some aspect of society for the better. As Bussell and Forbes stated, 'a volunteer must have some altruistic motive'. They even stated that 'to be considered a volunteer, altruism must be the central motive where the reward is intrinsic to the act of volunteering. The volunteer's motive is a self-less one'. As the author mentioned, this form of tourism fascinates people, seeing helpless people, gives them the urge to help as well as giving them a different kind of tourist experience.
The author has put forward that volunteer tourism is seen as an altruistic desire to travel in order to assist communities in need. Therefore the importance given to altruistic desires over the tourist motives are mainly volunteer tourism which can be linked to social tourism, charity tourism or moral tourism where volunteer people come and work on local projects with local people.

Likely, volunteer tourists can help bring funding and enthusiastic labour as well as new ideas and skills to improve the destination that they are volunteering in. It can lead to improved cross-cultural understanding, mutual learning and increased awareness of social and environmental issues. At the same time, volunteer tourists are often given the opportunity to have a more 'authentic' experience by gaining valuable skills, develop their sense of self, and even improve future employment prospects.

Volunteer tourism is likely to continue gaining popularity in the future as individuals seek to combine the satisfaction of volunteer work with more real travel experiences. While volunteer tourism usually travels from developed countries to volunteer in developing countries, it is now also an expanding form of tourism. Overall the paper was an interesting read and in my opinion, Volunteer tourism is seen to provide a more reciprocally beneficial form of travel in which both the volunteer and the host country are able to gain from the experience. By doing further research in the volunteer tourism area, it will be possible to expand knowledge regarding good practice in volunteer tourism, as well as ensuring that it is mutually beneficial to the traveller as well as the destination.