Impact of Volunteer Tourism on Host Communities - Report Example

Impact of volunteer tourism on host communities Impact of volunteer tourism on host communities Introduction There exists agroup of tourists who organize themselves and travel into missions that involve alleviating material poverty of the host society or the host environment for free called volunteer tourism. They do this so as to feel good about themselves and for self accomplishment hence altruism Sin, 2010, p984). According to Callanan & Thomas (2005, p190), these volunteers join community welfare, teaching programs, environmental conservation programs and building projects .The composition of these tourists is displayed in the table below according to period that the tourists stay. Casual V Intermediate VT Devoted VT Duration Short-term ( < 4 wks) Medium-term 1-6 m Long-term > 6m Motivation Self interested Self-interest motivation & altruism Altruism Level of interaction and cross-Δ with host community Low Medium High Impact to host community Low Medium High Impact to themselves Low Medium High This form of tourism can be linked to the normal tourism that gives importance to interaction between the host locals and the tourists. This tourism can still be related to research purposes, adventured expeditions, social tourism and eco-tourism too (Benson 2011). Basically, this form of tourism involves volunteering for a course and for learning purposes between the local hosts and the guest tourists (Wearing, 2001). Benefits of volunteer tourism The impact of volunteer tourism is diverse and they cannot be completely exploited. However, this paper will try to address some of the impacts associated with volunteer tourism to the host community and to the tourists who are the guests. It will highlight some of the impacts that are positively associated with volunteer tourism and it will also comment on volunteer tourism by giving out some of its possible negative impacts. This information will be gathered using secondary research, from academic theories from tourists who have experienced firsthand volunteer tourism. This information will therefore enable us to make our own conclusion about the effects of volunteer tourism. The fact that volunteer tourism is not yet fully explored, a concrete definition cannot be pinned on the phenomenon as study is still being carried out to explain it further more. Culture however generally two fundamentals that are normally intertwined has. The first fundamental is normally associated with values cultural norms and traditional customs (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2009). This fundamental about culture can be said to be ideological in nature. The second fundamental is associated with the people’s characters, behavior and their food (Jack and Phipps, 2005) .This is a cultural fundamental that is normally said to be materialistic in nature. Tourists, whether volunteer tourists or normal tourists, have to interact with these two fundamentals of the host culture where they have visited. As cited by Wall and Mathieson (2006), short term tourists will normally get to grasp so much cross cultural knowledge and differences as compared to the locals. On the other hand, long term volunteer tourists normally have an impact on the local’s perspective about their difference in culture. Therefore, cross cultural differences can be said to be affected by the level of interaction between the volunteer tourist and the local host. The level of interaction is however affected by the language compatibilities of the two diverse cultures, the period of interaction and the willingness and cooperation between the host and the tourist. These are the factors which will affect the ability of cultural exchange. Volunteer tourism is quite a different form of tourism because it is described as tourism with a purpose. This therefore creates the need for harmony and cooperation between the host community and the tourists visiting these areas. This therefore affects the cross border relationships between the host nation and the nation sending their delegation of tourists. Several nations have created diplomatic ties because of the effect of volunteer tourism that escalated to being noticeable on national heights. This normally has an effect on the both the host country and the guest country because trade treaties and bilateral development projects normally arise because of the volunteering exchange programs. As much as allies can be built through volunteer tourism, enemity can also be cultivated through the same. Hostility from the host community can broil sour relationship between the two nations hence affecting their diplomatic ties. Negligence from the host community may lead to harm or death to the guests. Moufakirr and Burns (2011) cite Alexander and Baker (2011) trying to define the meaning of volunteer tourism as tourism involving volunteering and working for the better good of the world and especially the local community. Alexander and Baker (2011) implied that volunteer tourism must involve working and direct engagement with the local community. This engagement therefore has to include action, integration, penetration, interaction, participation, immersion and involvement. These activities ensure maximum cross cultural engagement unlike the normal tourism experience. This cross cultural exchange should also be used to impact on the life of the locals in their day to day activities and help them to assist the locals in bettering their lives. Through the volunteer tourist’s commitment to their work, they can then influence the local communities and hence communicate the sense of importance in their work to the community locals. This commitment to help fight environmental degradation and to fight poverty coming from more economically and intellectually proficient people impacts positively on the local population by rallying them to join the initiative of self liberation and environmental conservation (Newsome, Moore and Dowling ,2013). Volunteer tourism has also opened up the host communities to diversity of the global cultures. This is because volunteer tourism attracts people from various parts of the world and hence they bring with them diverse cultures. The host community however does not have the chance to travel the world but to amerce as much as they can from the visitors. This has brought about partnership especially for local travel agencies who charge a fee to ensure that a tourist gets to explore the raw experience of the community. These travel agencies provide touring services and guiding services to the volunteer tourists understanding the significance of their journey. The travel agents therefore ensure that they have point men who understand some of the guests’ culture and language so as to facilitate communication between the volunteer tourist and the locals. Limitations to volunteer tourism According to Brown and Hall (2008) as cited by Fullagar, Markwell and Wilson (2012), young people willing to be volunteers in the tourism sector lack the expertise skills and knowledge to be efficient enough hence they don’t impact much on the tourism industry. Brown and hall believe that there is no tremendous impact that has been made by volunteer tourists so far. Alexander and baker (2011), in their research they found out that a tourist have expectations such as they need he provider to be willing and ready to provide services for unpaid work, that they will have time to relax and that they will be able to relax, have fun and that the entire experience will have a great impact in their lives. Alexander and Baker (2011) also found out that this group of tourists is willing to pay the provider hence they operate under the assumption that the provider should be willing to provide services for unpaid work. Believes that the volunteer tourists benefit more from the entire adventure as compared to the locals. It is believed that short term volunteering projects do more harm to developing nations other that have a positive impact on them. Short term projects such as the gap-projects create a connection and aspiration to the locals but then these hopes are crashed the moment the volunteers leave the community (Wang, and Pizam, 2011). Bricker, Black and Cottrell (2013) have cited Palacios (2010) research which found out that these volunteer programs tend to benefit the foreigners more. According to Palacios (2010), these programs do not adhere to their main objectives like dealing with poverty eradication in these developing countries; they instead pursue other objectives that benefit them more. Palacios believes that volunteers have not yet understood the notion of poverty in developing countries and also they don’t understand the culture in these countries. However Palacios (2010) does not believe that volunteer tourist should be viewed as colonialism. He defends this by saying other programs such as exchange programs on culture and education are not viewed as colonialism hence volunteer tourism should not be classified as colonialism. Nevertheless palacios recognizes that foreign interest and benefit generated out of these programs is greater than the focus on locals in terms of handling critical issues such as poverty (cited by Gray and Campbell, 2007). Another effect brought about by volunteerism is the fact that it brings about inequalities. The volunteer tourists are mostly skilled people and this creates a gap between them and the locals because of the differences in intellectual capacity. According to Guttentag (2009), the locals might develop a negative attitude towards the volunteers due to the fact that they are poor and they feel intimidated by the It is said that as much as the locals always propose the programs that they would like to be initiated in their regions, they barely have authority on how the programs are run. This brings about another problem for the host community; lack of empowerment. Lack of empowerment leaves the community vulnerable and very dependant to aid and assistance. Conclusion As volunteer tourism increases, the need to streamline this industry also becomes inevitable. This is because currently, the systems in place is not fully defined hence the current volunteer programs have so much negative impacts to the host communities. Implementation of the set of rules that will be put in place will ensure that volunteers leave a lasting positive impact to the communities where they visit (Earthscan, 2005). These rules will identify the required stakeholders to facilitate voluntourism and hence lock out private businesses which are after making profit at the expense of the locals or the volunteers. The selection process of volunteers would also require vetting so as to ensure their input and skills are the exact skills needed in the host nations. This would ensure that projects are very effective and hence erase the need to redo projects. The need to redo projects is brought about by incompetent volunteers who find themselves dealing with issues in which they have no technological knowhow. Through this new system, the host countries would also be part of the process of determining their needs and also be part of the selection process of the volunteer tourists. This is also a way to erase the notion of neo-colonialism that has formed on many people’s minds (Singh, 2012). The host should be willing to participate in the programs brought by the volunteers’ tourists. This will promote intercultural exchange and it will also enhance the efficiency of these programs. References GOELDNER, C. R., & RITCHIE, J. R. B. (2009). Tourism principles, practices, philosophies. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley. WALL, G., & MATHIESON, A. (2006). Tourism: change, impacts and opportunities. Harlow, England, Pearson Education. MOUFAKKIR, O., & BURNS, P. 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