Impacts of Volunteer Tourism in Host Communities - Essay Example

IMPACTS OF VOLUNTEER TOURISM IN HOST COMMUNITIES by Table of contents Introduction volunteer Tourism Concept History of Volunteer Tourism Impacts on Host Communities Positive Effects Negative Effects Conclusion Introduction Tourism, in the traditional sense, refers to travelling from one destination to another for adventure or simply for leisure purposes. It is one of the most popular ways of spending free time, or time away from work, for most people around the world. Tourism takes many forms. These include sports tourism, ecotourism, and bush and game drives. However, it also takes another form commonly referred to as alternative tourism. Alternative tourism denotes the act of travelling for other causes alongside fun and leisure, such as wildlife conservation, capacity building, or poverty alleviation. Alternative tourism has gained considerable popularity over the years, as more and more people are looking to do more than vacationing. Volunteer tourism is a classic example of alternative tourism. It involves travelling to further a cause, other than leisure. This essay will explore the various definitions of volunteer tourism, give its brief history, and finally highlight and evaluate its impacts, both the positive and negative, on host communities. Volunteer Tourism Concept Volunteer tourism can be defined and looked at in a number of ways. In the strict sense, it is a form of alternative tourism, like ecotourism. In the alternative forms of tourism, people travel to accomplish other agendas in their travel itineraries other than just leisure. This could be medical research or environmental conservation (Benson, 2010:15). Volunteer travel has a wide scope, and ranges from volunteering in such activities as tree planting and cleaning up of national parks, to those activities that require a high level of skill such as the development of sustainable energy for villages in foreign lands. This, however, is the general and strict version. There are other experiences within tourism, which are unique from this definition. Wearing provides the distinct definition of volunteer tourism from the strict categorization of alternative tourism. He defined volunteer tourism as an activity pursued by persons or tourists in a manner that is organized and involves such volunteer activities as alleviation of poverty in society, research, or environment restoration (Wearing & McGehee, 2013:37). He thus defined a volunteer tourist as any person who undertakes volunteer work in the cause of his or her travelling. In this definition of a volunteer tourist, only tourists undertaking short-term volunteer work are accommodated and not those who commit to volunteer work that takes more than one year. Volunteer tourism may also be defined from the word ‘volunteerism’. The word volunteerism ideally implies willingly committing one’s time and resources to activities that will result in a change of a particular issue, such as environmental degradation, under review in a society. In this sense of definition, volunteer tourism is also referred to as volunteerism. In volunteer tourism, the individual must have certain characteristics or motivations to qualify as a volunteer tourist. These are altruism and selflessness (Benson, 2010:31). These basic motivations actually differentiate a volunteer tourist from the normal tourist. Volunteer tourists have also been labelled as development workers. This is because they normally undertake projects in host communities that are of a developmental nature, such as the construction of dams, health centres and schools. In this definition, therefore, a volunteer tourist is driven by the selfless desire to cause a positive change to society. They are also motivated by the encounters of a different vacation experience as well as the possibility of gaining personal growth and development. History of Volunteer Tourism The history of volunteer tourism can be traced back to the mid 20th century when the John F. Kennedy government initiated international voluntary services in the year 1961. This was primarily through the establishment of the services of the United States Peace Corps, which later introduced the world to the new concept of volunteer travel. However, Herb Feith is mostly acknowledged for the origination of the idea of volunteer tourism. His Volunteer Graduate Scheme program is feted as being a pioneer program in the volunteerism campaign (Thomas, 2013:185). Over the years, the concept of volunteer tourism has gained momentum, and its popularity has increased. It has been cited as one of the sectors in the tourism industry that has experienced significant expansion. Today, there are an increasing number of individuals all over the world, such as college and university students, who are vacationing while taking part in volunteer programs like tree planting, charity walks, and conservation. Organized volunteer tourism is also pursued by international organizations, also referred to as sending organizations, which send volunteer vacationers on their behalf to host communities to perform projects such as medical research, construction of health facilities, and development of businesses. These organizations include churches and other religious outfits, universities, and governments. Impacts on Host Communities Having discussed the definition, scope, and history of volunteer tourism, it is now imperative to evaluate and analyze its impacts on host communities. Impacts here denote the potential positive and negative outcomes that may result from the volunteer activities of a volunteer tourist. Volunteer tourism has a string of benefits that arise from it. Positive Effects Firstly, it results to the employment of locals in the host community. Volunteer tourists, while conducting their projects in the host communities, inject significant amounts of capital (Sin, 2010:983). This facilitates the employment of manpower to ensure timely completion of projects. The placement of labour, both skilled and unskilled, directly benefits the host community as its members are empowered. Their purchasing power is also improved. For instance, the construction of projects such as schools is by nature labour intensive. Local members of the communities thus benefit directly from such volunteer tourism initiatives. The second positive benefit of volunteerism is the creation of lasting positive relations between volunteer tourists and the host communities that accommodated them in the course of their vacationing. Projects that are initiated by volunteer tourists are usually meant to fill a gap in the host community. For instance, a girl’s school building project may emanate from the need to educate girls who do not have access to education. Such projects create a strong bond and long-term relationships between community members and the volunteers. Upon completion of the volunteering vacationing, the tourists head back home. However, research has shown that the volunteers maintain communication with the communities, and even participate in future engagements such as raising funds or any form of donations in support of the community (Sin, 2010:988). Environmental degradation is a global concern today. In most countries, especially the developing nations, overpopulation has led to the wilful destruction of forests and other ecosystems to create room for housing. The resultant effects include adverse weather changes, drought, and the disappearance or death of wildlife species as their habitats and migratory routes being altered. One of the major areas that volunteerism has made significant progress is environmental conservation. Individual tourists, or those sent by organizations, normally engage local authorities and communities in the conservation and restoration of destroyed ecosystems. Environmental and wildlife conservation takes many forms such as planting of trees, building of gabions to prevent soil erosion, and labelling and tracking of wild animals such as elephants to prevent human-wildlife conflicts. In Kenya, for example, volunteer tourism has led to the realization of a harmonious co-existence between peasant farmers and Jumbo elephants. This has been through the erection of an electric fence in the Aberdare National park by a volunteer sender organization, the Rhino Ark (Nowak, 2007:89). These initiatives, other than preserving the environment for future generations of the host community, they also serve to enhance a cordial understanding between the sending organizations and the community. Volunteers also develop personally, and they experience personal growth. Negative Effects Despite the numerous benefits volunteer tourism has realized, there has been growing criticism and concerns about its furtherance. This criticism is mostly coming from researchers, academics, and even volunteer organizations themselves. The first major criticism levelled against volunteer tourism is that it does not really care for the host communities as it claims it does. Several reasons have been advanced to support this claim. Firstly, as the term of volunteer work nears completion, emphasis is placed more on the well-being of the volunteers more than the communities are. Secondly, voluntary tourism, especially those organized by institutions, are more business minded than community driven (Guttentag, 2009:540). The sending organizations will normally arrange for one-off placements, as they are cost effective. Repeat volunteering for the same host community is not viewed as viable from a business dimension. These reasons thus skew the true position that volunteer tourism seem to advocate for. The second criticism that has been advanced against volunteerism is that it leads to increased dependency from host communities. Tourism, by nature, follows a cyclical pattern of peak and off-peak. Volunteer tourism, a form of tourism, follows the same pattern. This fact, coupled with the short duration of time volunteer tourists spend with host communities, results to uneven focus on development agendas. This creates dependency shortly after the tourists leave, as the volunteers may no longer be available to offer long-term support (Guttentag, 2009:105). Conclusion Volunteer tourism has been vouched for as one of the rapidly increasing forms of tourism. It involves a tourist who is on vacation, not only for leisure purposes, but also with an agenda of positively changing the face of host communities. Volunteer tourism has a string of benefits that are associated with it. These include environmental conservation and creation of mutual positive relations between the tourists and host communities. However, it has also been criticized for putting more emphasis on the welfare of the visiting volunteers other than on the host communities as well creating a level of dependency on the side of the host community. Volunteer tourism is a great venture the world over. Its initiatives have positively affected the livelihoods of many persons. However, its negative attributes taint that image and consequently affect host communities. Reference List Benson, A M 2010, Volunteer Tourism: Theoretical Frameworks and Practical Applications. New York: Routledge. Guttentag, D A 2009 "The possible negative impacts of volunteer tourism." International Journal of Tourism Research 11.6, pp 537-551. Sin, H L 2010, "Who are we responsible to? Locals’ tales of volunteer tourism." Geoforum 41(6), pp 983-992. Nowak, H 2007, Volunteer Tourism as an Alternative to Or Supplement of Community-based Development: A Ghanaian Case Study. Ontario: York University. Thomas, S 2013, Volunteer Tourism. California: Cengage Learning. Wearing, S & McGehee N 2013, International Volunteer Tourism: Integrating Travelers and Communities. New York: CABI. Read More