The three benefits of voluntourism

A personal perspective

Voluntourism is a growing tourism practice which involves individuals spending an entire or part of their vacation in a region working for a charitable cause. Writes Uday Balaji

My first encounter with voluntourism was when a friend of mine was heading to Senegal to build houses for a local community, while paying for this privilege. It seemed ludicrous that one would pay to spend their hard earned vacation time working!

This article aims to understand why an individual would pursue this way of travel and explore the benefits both to the individual and destination. I will attempt to do this by touching on my experience while voluntouring recently in South Africa.

I see 3 broad benefits for a traveler pursing voluntourism:

Firstly, it enables the traveler to truly understand local challenges by living with locals in often underprivileged communities. This is a profound benefit when considering that a large number of tourists tend to stay in resorts, visiting local sights and eating at local restaurants, often without actually getting under the skin of the region and understanding it at a deeper level.

During my time in South Africa, I voluntoured at a game reserve which supported a local orphanage for children orphaned by AIDs. This gave me valuable insights into the workings of a game reserve on the inside, rather than just going on safaris and spending relaxed evenings in the lodge as well as understanding the local impact of AIDs in a community where 1 in 3 persons were afflicted by the horrible disease.

This enables one to not only be a more responsible traveler, but also take away a genuine, rewarding and educated view of the region she has traveled in.

A voluntourist also comes in contact with like minded individuals who believe in a higher purpose when traveling. I had the privilege of meeting and working with people with vastly different backgrounds, geographic locations and from different walks of life. I would not have otherwise met these people, who I learnt a lot from during my stint as a voluntourist and even now when I am in touch with them via multiple media including Facebook groups focused on Rhino conservation, personal interactions and so on.

Finally, given that the large majority of voluntourist holidays are taken in regions less developed than that of the traveler’s home region, there are often valuable life lessons learnt. Coming from a privileged upbringing and having lived in the US and Europe, I had never before seen the ground realities of communities affected by AIDs. When meeting children orphaned at a young age, living in poverty, yet being able to smile, the things that I considered ‘problems’ back home, seemed incredibly trivial in comparison.

Voluntourism can give a traveler a reality check and an appreciation of what she has been given in life.
Having explored the benefits for the traveler let me know speak about the benefits I see for the local communities.

The most obvious advantage is that less privileged communities have new funds flowing in to improve local living conditions. Given that visitors pay in western currencies, the impact of even what the traveler considers small amounts of money can have a major impact in Africa for instance.

Especially in work with high human contact, the locals get to meet and learn from voluntourists from vastly different backgrounds. This could range from small things like a short conversation about life in another part of the world to perhaps even being taught to draw with a new set of crayons.

The community also benefits from unpaid labor and expertise. My friend for instance not only paid for materials, but also put in hours of manual labor building houses. Physical labor of course is perhaps not the most valued commodity in such regions, but consider the impacts a voluntouring doctor could make in a community with no access to basic healthcare or a water engineer implementing a low cost system for water purification.

Finally, when a voluntourism program reaches a certain critical mass of voluntourists they end up having an alumni base. This network can have two distinct impacts. Firstly, these voluntourists increase awareness of the living conditions of the local communities, thereby potentially creating a pipeline of voluntourists for the program. This must not be underestimated, given the high marketing costs that a program of this nature would require.

Even if the alumni don’t drive more traffic in terms of people to the program they could might continue to donate funds to the program on their own or through their friends or even corporations.
Having looked at the benefits of voluntourism, I feel it is essential that I also touch on a couple of challenges faced by the industry and caution potential voluntourists.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is that the voluntourism space is highly fragmented. It is hard for a voluntourism program to market themselves on a large scale internationally simply due to the nature of the industry and costs involved. Along the same lines, it is hard for a voluntourist to choose a program from the hundreds out there. When I searched for a program, I had extremely limited information to decide between one program and another. Unlike the booking.coms of the world, voluntourism programs have maybe a handful of reviews each if lucky. Some programs have Fair trade certifications which gives one some confidence, but even these might not be sufficient, given the unique nature of each program. One of my co-voluntourists has been voluntouring extensively across programs in southern Africa for a year and in his words "It’s all a gamble; you just need to get there and see for yourself". This does not augur well for a growing space and there is a crying need for large accredited sources of information and reviews.

Another major challenge is that organizations typically see voluntourist stints of 1-3 weeks. In humanitarian projects especially, where relationships are key, in my opinion this is just not enough time. Measurement of impact and transparency is critical for the programs both internally, to tailor their offering and externally, to attract the best talent. A high level of tailoring by the program owners and due diligence by the voluntourist are necessary to understand the benefits of these short stints.

To conclude, this is a promising industry with potential benefits for all stakeholders, but like in all developmental pursuits, these stakeholders must take equal responsibility in ensuring that the benefits outweigh any negative impacts.

Uday Balaji
BENEFIT FROM THE VISION GREEN TOURISM SPECIAL OFFER HERE