The Potential Impacts Volunteer Tourism can have on a Destination

Volunteer tourism is a relatively new concept and is increasing in popularity. Volunteer tourism is when tourists decide to travel with the intention of providing aid, sometimes using skills they possess, such as building skills. Due to the fact that the aim of volunteer tourism is to provide aid, it is perceived that volunteer tourism has an overall positive influence, however just like all forms of tourism, there are also negative influences caused by volunteer tourism. This paper will discuss the potential negative and positive impacts that volunteer tourism can have upon a destination.

Key words: volunteer tourism, positive impact, negative impact, destination, volunteers

Volunteer tourism was introduced as an alternative to mass tourism in the 1980s and is now considered a niche form of tourism (Novelli, 2005). Volunteer tourism most commonly takes place in less developed countries (Robinson et al, 2011), with the volunteers usually being from more developed western countries (Benson, 2011). Wearing (2001, p.1) defines volunteer tourism as people "who volunteer in an organised way to undertake holidays that may involve the aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research in to aspects of society or environment". Some of the most common activities for volunteer tourism include: teaching in schools, harvesting crops, planting trees and offering health related services.

The host destination and the people that live there may benefit from volunteer tourism socially, economically and culturally (Zhao and Ritchie, 2007). The destination may benefit from new buildings being built and a clean supply of water may be provided. The destination may benefit economically due to the increase in tourism and tourists spending their money there in locally owned restaurants and shops causing less leakage than there would be from conventional mass tourism. The volunteers can also teach the locals some of the skills they possess, such as teaching them how to build buildings such as houses, therefore making the community less reliant on volunteer tourists and being able to improve their community themselves (Benson, 2011). The destination may benefit both socially and culturally by locals being taught about different cultures, and learning about different ways of life from the volunteers (Hannam, 2010).

Volunteer tourism may also have a positive impact on a destination due to tourists returning home and informing others about their positive experience, therefore encouraging them to participate in volunteer tourism (Brown, 2005). Also volunteers may then inform others about the problems and issues of the destination, raising the awareness of those problems (Benson, 2011).

Volunteer tourism not only has positive impacts on the destination and its community but also on the volunteers themselves. Volunteers can return with a greater cultural awareness (Singh, 2004), a feeling that they have made a difference to the destination (Jamal and Robinson, 2009) and inspired to participate in more volunteer work when they return home (Lyons and Wearing, 2008). If they return home more inspired, they may participate in more volunteer tourism closer to home meaning more destinations will benefit.

As well as the positive impacts, volunteer tourism can also have negative impacts. Hannam (2010) stated that there are two types of volunteer tourism: 'volunteer minded' and 'vacation minded'. Those that are 'volunteer minded' are more likely to have a positive impact on the destination as they are more interested in the 'volunteer' side of the holiday. Whereas those who are 'vacation minded' are more interested in the 'vacation' side of the holiday and likely to cause more harm than good. Tourists may participate in volunteer tourism purely for selfish reasons such as improving their CV to make themselves more attractive to employers (Ramrayka, 2001) or being more 'vacation minded' and wanting to participate more for the 'vacation' than the 'volunteering'. They may also not possess the sufficient skills for example building skills, and consume time by having to be helped by others that do possess the necessary skills (Lew et al, 2008). Hostility from locals may arise due to the fact that the volunteers come to the destination and are doing jobs for free that the locals could easily do themselves whilst being paid for it.

Another potential negative impact that may be caused by volunteer tourism is the using of the host destinations resources by the volunteers (Lyons and Wearing, 2008). Whilst the volunteers are there, they will need to be fed and watered as well as using other facilities. As the destinations popular with volunteer tourism are usually less developed countries, they generally have less resources, and having more people as well as the locals using those resources could put a strain on the destination and limit the resources.

Another negative impact is the impact on the environment. As most volunteer tourists are from more developed western countries, it will most likely be necessary for them to travel a distance to the less developed countries that are popular with volunteer tourists. Therefore this will cause a negative environmental impact. To combat this, volunteers could volunteer for volunteer projects closer to their home, minimising their environmental impact. They could also instead of travelling to the less developed destination, they could send money, which would still be benefitting the locals but minimising their own environmental damage.

References

Benson, A. (2011) Volunteer Tourism: Theory Framework to Practical Applications. Oxon: Routeledge.

Ramrayka, L. (2001) Charities urged to woo gap volunteers. The Guardian, 16th August.

Zhao, W. and Ritchie, J.R.B. (2007) Tourism and Poverty Alleviation: An Integrative Research Framework. Current Issues in Tourism, 10(2&3)

The author of this paper clearly recognises that there are an abundance of impacts caused as a result of Volunteer tourism. They also accurately acknowledge that there are a number of negative impacts and a number of positive impacts. However it was observed that amongst the positive impacts there were many potentially negative impacts, some of which were not identified. Overall though the author clearly defined the fairly new yet already popular niche tourism as well as setting out the paper in an orderly way so as to provide any reader with an in-depth insight into a significant proportion of positive impacts leading on to an in-depth insight into the negative impacts which plague this recently new tourism.

In reviewing the positive impacts mentioned; the author refers to the quote of 'the host people and the volunteer tourists may benefit socially, economically and culturally', however the author appears in this instance not to acknowledge that not only could this be a negative impact because of acculturation but also because if the host community were to adopt the habits, behaviours and language of the volunteers, it may be negative in that many people living in the western world are prone to bad behaviour such as starting fights or simply just aggressive and irritable behaviour, as well as the use of foul language and bad habits such as smoking and drinking excessively. Although it could be argued that those who participate in volunteer tourism would be sensible enough and focused on helping others, it should also be considered that currently the main market segment is generally aged between 18 and 25 years of age, generally has no permanent job, potentially still a student and therefore would be more inclined to party and have a good time, and as identified by the author; only be vacation minded and not volunteer minded.

The author also comments that tourism and tourist spending is economically positive because the destination has its own shops and restaurants therefore reducing leakage, however with the increased interest in volunteer tourism countries the local businesses may well be owned by western companies or businesses that merely allow the locals to work there to boost morale by creating jobs whilst still making a profit, meaning that leakage is still present. Another impact that the author also considers to be a positive impact is that of raising the awareness of the destinations problems and issues experienced by the locals, however this too could be a negative aspect if the problems themselves deter volunteers from choosing to help in specific destinations, for example most people would probably rather help protect wildlife in a sanitary and safe areas than help build buildings in remote and unsanitary and impoverished small villages in Africa.

Of the negative impacts mentioned by the author, they describe common perceptions of why tourists may participate in volunteer tourism such as improving their C.V, not having the adequate skills to help out, as well as potentially consuming the locals' scarce resources such as food and water to name but a few.

The potential aspects missing from above paper were possibly some example or cases of voluntary tourism and their success, problems and impacts, as well as a view into the possible future for volunteer tourism and what could be done to further deal with theses impacts and problems, as illustrated by the authors identification of volunteering for projects closer to home or even just the possibility of sending money. The aforementioned issues acknowledged are seemingly the only main limitations of this paper.