Voluntourism: Holidaying with a difference

 

Voluntourism – a holiday mix that combines travelling to exotic places with volunteering – is booming. No longer confined to the reach of Gap year students looking for thrills, dedicating as little as 2 weeks of your holiday time to local projects can be a way to give meaning to recreation and help redirect holiday euros to a worthy cause. But the catchphrase that first took off in the USA, where a Travel Industry Association survey found that more than one quarter of travellers were interested in holiday charity work in 2007, is now taking hold in Europe.

 

Solidarity cycling in Belorussia, rehabilitating Bulgarian transhumance routes, contributing to the development of Ukrainian rural villages are just some of the opportunities that voluntourism “made in Europe” has to offer. If, on the other hand, you are looking for something more exotic, the world truly is your oyster. Whether it is working on a community project in Namibia, protecting turtles in India, or conserving the environment in the Azores or Peru, the opportunities are endless.

Be warned though: being a do gooder may not always make for a good time. Can you handle spending your holidays in a shack with a shared outhouse? Will the work that you, an unskilled volunteer, carry out in two or three weeks, make a lasting contribution to a place’s environment and development? London watchdog group Tourism Concern have raised questions about the impact and ethics of holiday volunteering and many organisations and charities have begun to think that tourists should, after all, just be tourists. Better if they are responsible tourists. And to help them along the way, the World Bank has funded a programme called Stay another day to help tourists spend their money in ways that truly will benefit the local community. Like visiting the Sangkheum orphanage in Siam Reap, Cambodia, or helping monks practice their English at Luang Prabang in Laos.

But not everyone agrees that voluntourism should be discarded. Mark Hintzke runs a two-week voluntourism programme restoring temples in Nepal. According to him, it was only natural to tap into tourist money seeing as funding was scarce. His voluntourists spend half of the day building walls and painting with the monks, the rest of the day is theirs for holidaying.

Still not convinced? Surf the web to find out more, and don’t miss the rest of our summer tips.

Find out more

http://www.voluntourism.org/

http://www.godifferently.com/voluntourism.asp

http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/documents/op_tp_voluntourism.html

http://www.rebelfarmer.org/voluntourism.html

http://responsibletourism.co.uk/holidays?d=116

http://www.petergreenberg.com/2007/03/30/expert-voluntourism-doing-your-job-for-free-and-loving-every-minute/