Voluntourism Assignment

Introduction

This assignment is a practice about the voluntourism industry and is set to deepen my knowledge about voluntourism and get a good understanding on how the voluntourism industry is operating.

The problem statement that has to be answered is: “what is the scope of voluntourism?”

In order to solve this matter, there are main research questions who have to be answered:

♣ What is voluntourism and what (sub)forms belong to it?

♣ What major key players are active in voluntourism (private & public)?

♣ How do the key players work together and what products do they offer?

♣ What are the main target groups in voluntourism and what are their characteristics?

♣ What innovations are evident in voluntourism?

♣ What are the consequences

One important point is that a fee must be paid often if you want to get started as a volunteer. Those costs that they pay, are getting used for the project that there will be working on. moreover, this funding source is not used as a form of profit. This type of volunteer work often involves short projects such as building houses, or teaching at local schools. In this category, you do not need to have a special education program to participate.

Long term placements: This category includes more opportunities for volunteering, as you stay longer on a destination. As a volunteer, you develop more skills and you will get a better interaction with the local population. This category is mostly not that stressful for the volunteers, as more there is more time to spent by getting things done. Another advantage of this category is that there is often no fee for this category in comparison with the short time placements. There is a possibility that the volunteers can get a little paid for the work that they are doing. Long term volunteers can also be paid a part for the work they do during the

An example of this might be that short-term volunteers quickly and easily need to be informed about how the business is going, as they are only a short period of time, and the work needs to be done well. often, volunteers who have previously worked on a specific project are appointed because they know the course of business.

Conclusion: Wearing describes that the definition of voluntourists is:

Those tourists who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments or research into aspects of society or environment. (Wearing, 2001)

There are 5 subgroups of voluntourism, called:

♣ Education

♣ Medical

♣ Technical

♣ Environmental

♣ General Labor

Every voluntourist can choose a subgroup of voluntourism, in witch they want to volunteer. They can then choose between short term placement, those are up to 3 moths. They can also choose for long term placements. Those are mostly for longer than one year. Sometimes, the host community pays for the volunteer. The third group is called paid supervisor positions. This is mostly for volunteers who have a prior education, or are already involved for a longer time with the