Volunteer Tourism

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: ‘Voluntouring programs are incredible journeys through remarkable destinations, combining unique travel opportunities with meaningful volunteer work’. This statement, taken from the website of Aquila Tours, which is one of the first Canadian tour operators offering this kind of volunteer tourism, shows how this type of tourism is advertised and sold to the customer as a new kind of travel experience. This example illustrates how tour operators describe this kind of tourist experience using word games like ‘Voluntouring’ in order to market this special form of tourism which combines leisure, volunteer work and travel. This way of spending meaningful holidays is gaining more and more popularity among vastly different demographic categories of people. To make a difference while on vacation is already very popular in the U.S, UK and Australia, but is also a concept that is getting more and more attention worldwide. The media has played an important role: from The Time Magazine to Forbes Magazine: articles have been devoted to the idea of blending tourism with community and environmental oriented work. Lonely Planet published its first volunteer-travel guidebook in June 2007 called ‘Volunteer: A Traveler’s Guide to Making a Difference around the World’ as reaction to the growing importance of this travel segment. Newsweek International stated in its article: ‘Having fun doing good: For some altruistic travelers vacation means more than just a day at the beach’, furthermore describing the phenomenon as follows: ‘It’s tourism with a conscience, undertaken by travelers who don’t want to experience another culture through the windows of a tour bus (...)‘. People are prepared to pay to volunteer and they are even willing to devote holiday time in order to get actively involved and help in environmental conservation projects as well as social projects. In Germany, this new type of travel is slowly beginning to be considered as an emerging trend and was recognised by the press as early as end of 2006 and has been considerably strengthened since the end of 2007. This phenomenon of combining holidays with volunteer work has even developed a new term integrating both aspects: ‘Voluntourism’. In addition, it has created an industry around this, the so-called ‘Voluntourism Industry’. The numbers of socially responsible tourists as well as the opportunities available to them are increasing. The desire to help is matched by an [...]