It’s time to talk honestly about volunteering and tourism.
It’s time to address what we can do better and what we have done well. Can we learn from the mistakes about the mistakes made in voluntourism … mistakes made by travelers, organizations and the communities.
Our proposal – let’s highlight discussions about volunteering and tourism in the next six months including Responsible Tourism Week 2011. Suggestions please!
Recommended reading this week is a Telegraph article Volunteer holidays ‘do more harm than good’ and the response from Sallie Grayson including her blog entry Journalists do more harm than good?
Volunteering or “voluntourism ” (not my favourite term ) is a fast growing tourism sector – much of the publicity currently being generated ( see links Ron gives above for more) is neither balanced nor helpful to volunteers seeking to find “responsible” opportunities.Most sending organisations position themselves as responsible – many are not. we at people and places are keen to widen this debate and help potential volunteers find opportunities that are worthwhile for them and the communities they seek to serve.May I suggest that one of the most accessible ways for small organisations to differentiate themselves from the marketing hype used by so many is to undergo an independant audit of their policies – we did it last year. take a look at http://www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk/userfiles/RTAudit2008pandpFINAL(2).pdf or email me for contact details sallie@travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk