Volunteer tourism : effective development strategy or feel-good travel?

Abstract

As a branch of alternative tourism, volunteer tourism or 'voluntourism' is responsible for introducing vacationers to parts of developing countries not usually seen through traditional forms of tourism. These travelers interact with local and community development organizations in ways said to capacitate the organizations and contribute to development as a whole. This raises important questions about the implications of inserting unskilled and unprepared volunteers into what is said to be development work. Using a case study of American voluntourist groups working in Guatemala, this thesis examines claims that short-term, unskilled volunteers can engage in local development work. The findings suggest that voluntourism does not contribute to local development largely due to its failure to empower local people to improve their situations beyond the short-term efforts of voluntourists. Further alienating voluntourism from local development is that the needs of the voluntourists are most often met at the expense of those of the poor.