International Volunteer Tourism. Stephen Wearing

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       Ecotourism Operators, Communities and Volunteer Tourism

      Many, but not all, volunteer tourism operations find their roots in ecotourism. As a result, it is important to recognize the relationship with ecotourism and volunteer tourism. The ecotourism literature has a tendency to focus on cases in marginal or environmentally threatened areas. These communities often recognize the connection between economic survival and the preservation of their natural resources through ecotourism development. One of the ways this can be achieved is by finding assistance through organizations that offer volunteer programmes to work on such projects.

      Significantly, it could be claimed that ecotourism — and in many cases volunteer tourism — is actually mass tourism in its early pretourism development stage (Wearing et al., 2005). However, it is not essential to have a singular view of what occurs. If the criteria used to describe the various components of ecotourism are applied to each particular tourism situation, it becomes clearer that a range of views of the type of tourist activity being undertaken can be taken and at the other end these activities may also conform to what Wallace (1992: 7) describes as ‘real’ ecotourism. More essential to this is the understanding of the two-way interactive process between host and guest, and this suggests that the social organization and culture of the host community are as much at risk from tourism as the physical environment (Robinson & Boniface, 1999). Both volunteer tourism and ecotourism aim to sustain the well-being of the host community. Volunteer tourism can be viewed as a sustainable development strategy that strives to be beneficial for the environment, local residents and the visitor, and both ecotourism and volunteer tourism then can be viewed across a spectrum that might place them as mass tourism or at the other end of the spectrum alternative tourism.

      One of the key questions this book will address is: can a philosophy and practice of volunteer tourism exist outside the market priorities defined and sustained in the global market place of tourism? The global commodification or commercial globalization of ecotourism, for example, is almost complete in many international tourist markets. As Campbell (1983) observes, consumption can become an end in itself. This commodification can be seen in the ambiguity over definition as to what ecotourism is and, as such, the profit objective has perhaps led to ecotourism’s misinterpretation by the industry and to the inclusion of a range of unethical products. R.W. Butler (1990) believes that for this reason a general understanding must be arrived at so that ecotour-ism is not just purely defined by commercial activity but also by ethics and a coherent philosophy. Some form of volunteer tourism may be able to offer an iteration of ecotourism where profit objects are secondary to a more altruistic desire to travel to assist communities.

      It is hoped that the developing networks between volunteer tourists, sus-tainably driven ecotourism operators and local communities, ideally aligned with national conservation/development strategies, can serve as examples for the tourism industry to become more sensitized to the role of tourism in the local-global nexus. It has been suggested that ecotourism can only operate effectively if it is developed and interlinked with certain concepts, such as national conservation strategies, designed to demonstrate to sectoral interests how they interrelate (Figgis & Bushell, 2007). This thereby reveals new opportunities for conservation and development to work together (Ohl-Schacherer et al., 2008). These different sectors include governments, private enterprise, local communities and organizations, conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international institutions.

      If each sector has an understanding of where volunteer tourism fits within the broader framework of the tourism and conservation sectors, then there is a greater likelihood of well-designed volunteer programmes. For example, a well-designed ecotourism-led volunteer tourism programme could focus on community-value driven volunteering in protected areas while providing education for outsiders (Kutay, 1990: 38). The ecotourism organizations and their approaches therefore are an essential part of the volunteer experience.

      By their very nature, ecotourism and volunteer tourism operate optimally within these parameters:

      • infrastructure that is sensitively developed where the tourism industry accepts integrated planning and regulation;

      • supply-led marketing by the tourism industry;

      • the establishment of carrying capacities (environmental and cultural) and strict monitoring of these; and

      • the environmentally sensitive behaviour and operations of tourists and operators.

      While ecotourism organizations have been the focus of this discussion thus far, a wide range of institutions and organizations play an important role in providing volunteer tourism experiences. The types of organizations vary considerably; a number provide international support and sponsorship for the implementation of research projects and community development. These organizations facilitate this process through provision of necessary resources that may not otherwise be available. The international scope of these organizations can prove invaluable assistance in terms of their accumulated knowledge and experience. These types of organizations provide a large number of recruits through volunteer tourism with the discretionary time and money to spend on sustainable development efforts (Whelan, 1991; McGehee & Santos, 2005). As such, they need access to relevant educational information before, during and after their experience. This will ensure maximization of their experience both on site and back in their own community.

      A number of authors suggest there is clear evidence that highly commodi-fied tourism is leading to unacceptable impacts on social and cultural values in some developing countries (Butler, 1992; Lea, 1993; Brohman, 1996; Robinson & Boniface, 1999; Cloke & Perkins, 2002; Archer et al., 2005; Wearing et al., 2005; Jamal et al., 2006; Holden, 2008; Kabwe-Segatti, 2009). Mass tourism is part of the free market economy, whereas volunteer tourism has roots in the decommodified spaces of community and environment. As a result, volunteer tourism often operates outside the traditional channels of mass tourism. Tourism in the free market economy uses and exploits communities and natural resources as a means of profit accumulation and has been described as the commercialization of the human need to travel. This can lead to the exploitation of host communities, their culture and environment (Lea, 1993: 714). A further concern over the impact of tourism on local culture is that organizations operating under the banner of ecotourism and volunteer tourism may need to accept regulations to protect natural environments from the exploitative attitudes of the free market society.

      It is conceivable that if volunteer tourism became dominated by the market economy, creating barriers between the volunteer tourist and the destination areas, then it would simply become another of a litany of commercially driven choices — and its purpose or significance becomes benign. This book seeks to address the idea that volunteer tourism enables the individual to have an experience that incorporates social value into identity and hence links the host community, the environment and self. If the key to a volunteer tourist experience is appreciation and awareness of the local environment (cultural and social), then the danger is that the volunteer tourist just becomes another consumer of a market product and thus eliminates or ‘filters out’ the underlying volunteer-community link in the experience.

      Volunteer tourism experiences can be examined differently from other tourism experiences, particularly in terms of the notion of self. Some argue that volunteer experiences cause value and consciousness changes in the individual that will subsequently influence their concept of self, and may even predicate a change in identity, (e.g. Wearing, 2002; Lepp, 2008). However, McDonald et al. (2009) argue that the pursuit of a desired identity is often derailed through the promulgation in modern Western societies of an ideal consumer whose primary leisure activity is consumption. As a result, this commodified volunteer tourist can never achieve what they seek. The experience becomes a tranquillizer rather than an awareness raising experience. The individual СКАЧАТЬ