Taking off Travel blog

A couple of weeks ago when I wrote a post on responsible travel, I ran into Alexia Nestora on Twitter. Alexia runs the Voluntourism Gal blog. With this type of tourism regaining popularity, I interviewed Alexia about voluntourism in general and her experiences in particular.

So what is voluntourism and how did it start?

Alexia Nestora of Voluntourism Gal

Voluntourism has been around for as long as people have been traveling, it’s nothing new but recently it’s gotten a lot of media attention and as a result is rising to the surface a lot more. The Peace Corps was one of the first organizations to formalize volunteering abroad and of course missionaries have been going abroad to serve for years.

The real voluntourism boom in the US happened after 9/11 and the tsunami. All of a sudden it seemed that people wanted to get more out of their vacations, they didn’t just want to sit on a beach anymore, they wanted to give back and get involved in the community.

What are the chief advantages of voluntourism for travelers?

As a voluntourist you will see a side of a community that is hidden away from traditional tourists. While most people will only take pictures of a sight, a voluntourist will live with the community that surrounds the sight and will truly understand what local culture is like – it’s so much more than a bus tour could ever show you.

What are the chief advantages of voluntourism for destinations?

There are many ways that, when voluntourism is done well, destinations benefit. Firstly, they get free labor. Maybe a local school needed to be rebuilt for decades but the workers in the area are spending every second they have trying to make money to support their family, and while they’d like to build a new school, they simply are too busy trying to survive.

Secondly, the communities benefit from the resources volunteers bring with them. Maybe the volunteers will bring new books for the library or maybe they’ll donate money so a group of local women can start a cooperative; this can be a slippery slope but as long as the giving is done responsibly the communities benefit greatly. Lastly, the intercultural relationships that are formed and the understanding of different nationalities greatly contributes to global cooperation. It’s easy to hate all Americans if you have never met one, it’s a bit harder to hate them if they lived with your family and diligently helped on your farm for 2 months. Read more »