Volunteer Tourism
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2011-07-11/volunteer-tourism
Can tourism make the world a better place? World travelers are setting aside days or weeks of their vacations to help build schools, teach courses, and volunteer in the local communities they visit. At its best, "voluntourism" creates authentic cultural experiences and leaves a lasting impact on the ground. But some say it leads to damaging, unforeseen consequences. We explore the volunteer tourism model.
Guests
Kristin Lamoureux
Director, International Institute of Tourism Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Tourism & Hospitality Management, George Washington University
Daniela Papi
Founder, PEPY (Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself) (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
You mentioned Alternative Spring Breaks. This is a large movement of college students, over 70,000 participated in one in 2010. Students follow a model that includes education, orientation and training as well as reflection, alcohol free trips. We promote the idea of active citizenship, following up on the issues learned at home with post-trip activism by lobbying congress or State Dept. etc. American University has international trips focusing on Dalit Rights in India, Burmese Democracy in Thailand, HIV/AIDS in South Africa and US Military Bases in Japan. We have a very sophisticated peer-led social justice education model using Break Away's 8 Components of best practices.
Are "voluntourism" agencies using or held to any sort of best practices?
Shoshanna Sumka
Assistant Director, Global Learning & Leadership
Center for Community Engagement and Service
at American University
That's a very good question. Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted standards or best practices for Volunteer Tourism operators as of yet. However, many organizations such as the Adventure Travel Trade Association and the IVPA do recommend best practices to their members. Additionally, the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria has been developed over the last decade. It is gaining quite a bit of acceptance as it pertains to sustainable tourism, in general.
The website www.voluntourism.org has a lot of information about volunteer tourism, cases, best practices, etc.
CREST (Center for Responsible Tourism) recently released a a guide to travelers Philanthropy which outlines a series of cases, standards and best practices for the larger Traveler's Philanthropy movement, in which volunteer tourism is included.
Lastly, Pepy and several other organizations were involved in the development of some recommended standards for volunteer tourism which is called Voluntourism 101 and can be found at www.voluntourism101.com.
Thank you for the question.
Kristin Lamoureux, Ph.D.
Director, International Institute of Tourism Studies
The George Washington University