CHAPTER 23

Voluntourism1

Voluntourism is a form of alternative tourism, which combines travel with volunteer service. You may have heard of it in its many other forms: volunteer vacations, working vacations, eco-voluntourism, edu-voluntourism, or educational tourism. These terms all represent the desire to swap a typical vacation for the chance to make a difference either near or far, to forgo the surf and sand in exchange for an opportunity to serve and learn about a host community, project, or people by rescuing sea turtles in Nicaragua, building schools in Kenya, or working in a program teaching art to homeless youth in the United States. Voluntourism is one of the fastest growing trends in travel today.2

A survey of over 300 volunteer tourism ...

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