VOLUNTOURISM

Voluntourism is becoming more and more popular. It's the perfect way to travel for people seeking adventure and unusual destinations.

Voluntourism is the association of two words : volunteer and tourism. It can be defined as followed : VolunTourism integrates the best of travel and tourism – arts, culture, geography, heritage sites, the natural environment, and recreation – with the opportunity to serve and enhance the destination – its people, places, and things.

Voluntourism is not actually new. Some say that the first voluntourist actually were the missionaries, healers or medical practicioners, sailors, explorers, and many others who have helped the locals while travelling. Others say that the creation of the Peace Corps in 1961 is how voluntourism started.

But it has become more and more popular in the last few years. Many factors have contributed to this new trend :

•      the current awareness about our environment
•      the search for “new” holidays
•      the portrayal through the media of the devastation of natural disasters
•      the willingness to help out the less fortunate

With voluntourism, travellers get the opportunity to get to know new cultures while helping them out. They can help out teaching at the local school, constructing houses, helping with the conservation of National Parks or saving endangered species.

Two industries come together to create this type of tourism : the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Voluntourism operators are appearing and creating “voluntour” packages all around the world. They work in the poor countries but also in countries recently devastated by natural disasters.

But voluntourism has also been criticised as an unethical practice where some people see it just as a good investement and not really helping out the local communities. These organisations often ask a huge amount of money for inscription fees. But very little of this money actualy goes to good use.

So if it is well organised and thoughtfully planned, voluntourism can be beneficial to the tourist and the local community. A good example of this could be after a natural disaster, the more volunteers they have to help out with the cleaning process and the rebuilding work can only be helpful to them. I think it is important to keep in mind the local communities and the help you can provide to them as you embark on a volunteer trip.

“Travel expands the mind, voluntary service expands the heart”.