Rethinking the true impact of voluntourism in line with new community development standards

Abstract

The volunteer tourism market now represents over $2 billion annually but its impact is not yet adequately understood. Studies that have considered the impacts of voluntourism on host communities have had some significant limitations as well as very having mixed findings, highlighting both the potential benefits but also the costs of this increasingly popular form of travel.

Voluntourism is now the fastest growing market in the tourism industry and it is essential we consider it critically to ascertain which voluntourism models are contributing to an outmoded north-south approach to development, and which are designed to support the capacity of local organisations. This paper will argue that with the recent publication of the IACD’s Towards shared international standards for community development practice document the time is right for a renewed and focused attempt to measure the impacts of volunteering and voluntourism on community development.