Volunteering and tourism: International Voluntourism Guidelines seek to do no harm

A new set of guidelines has been established for the volunteer tourism industry (voluntourism) – in which tourists volunteer their time – maintains the Sun-Herald (September 30, 2012).

The International Voluntourism Guidelines, released last week by The International Ecotourism Society (IES) and the Planeterra Foundation (PF), stress that the needs and wishes of the recipient community must be the first priority. It also states that there may be situations where volunteer tourism is not appropriate. The Guidelines were produced by an international panel of tourism experts who view the report as the first step toward improving the standards of voluntourism and ecotourism.

Voluntourism has often involved tourists working in orphanages for a few weeks, providing English and other lessons in overseas schools, building accommodation or water wells, or paving the way for rural roads. However, there have been growing concerns, according to the Guidelines, about the lack of scrutiny, duty of care, and intent of the travel agencies or non-profit organisations. The International Voluntourism Guidelines maintain that some travel and tour operators are merely involved to make a profit from “do-gooder” tourists with good intentions.

Key recommendations of the Guidelines include putting the community needs first (before those of the tourists or travel operators) and to ensure that projects focus on long-term sustainable benefits (not quick fix changes). The Guidelines recommends that volunteer programs should be introduced only when there has been a thorough analysis of alternatives, and when an exit strategy has been devised (for sustainability when the tourists leave). These strategies should be developed by the communities themselves, such that there is not a reliance on outside skills, but that the communities develop self-reliance.

The Guidelines also encourage travellers to look at volunteer programs carefully, and ask questions such as: when did the program start; why was it established; what is the aim of the program (why is it needed); what has it achieved to date; what is the quality of the program and the travel operators; what training and pre-trip arrangements and information is provided; what cultural sensitivities are there; what percentage of the money goes directly toward the program; and what is the plan for self-reliance. There should be clear evidence of accomplishments that are changing over time, maintains the Guidelines, rather than doing the same thing over and over again. In other words, there should be a strategy for positive change, in which the over-arching philosophy is “do no harm.”

Often volunteers get excited about helping a community or local organization and forget about the long-term sustainability of the exercise. Travellers often pay for volunteer programs and often ask why they should pay to volunteer their time. More transparency on the proportion of money that goes directly to the program will enable greater understanding of how voluntourism works.

The Guidelines also point out that voluntourism may not be appropriate in some situations, such as when the community is not comfortable with travellers “passing through” without clear preparation, instructions, guidelines, and information. In some situations the concept of charity needs to be weighed against sustainability and self-reliance to avoid communities feeling as if they are being dictated to, put down, or looked down upon.

The Guidelines maintain that not all voluntourism travel operators are ineffective and capitalistic, putting profit before benefit. The report says that volunteer programs can be part of a profit program as long as the core objective is to meet the needs of the local community, and the local community also profits from the program. Voluntourism is still evolving as an industry. While experiential travel that provided opportunities to interact with communities can be a positive aspect of tourism, The International Voluntourism Guidelines suggest that the industry could morph (change) into something else over time, and that there may be ways, other than volunteering, to have good intentions and for the communities to mutually benefit from the experience.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).