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WSJ on Voluntourism

Seems odd that this kind of thinking wasnt happening beforehand.... ?

'Voluntourism' 2.0 - WSJ.com

'Voluntourism' 2.0

Luang Prabang, Laos

As more travelers merge vacationing with volunteering, some find that being a do-gooder doesn't always make for a good time.

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Libby Shearon was looking for escape and cultural exchange when she paid $1,500 to help build a children's center in Sri Lanka. Instead, she says, she got three weeks of arguing with local staff and laborers over how to execute the project. "It was a total culture shock," the 65-year-old London resident recalls. She struggled with what she felt was the dismissive attitude of local people toward her and local women, and couldn't shake a gnawing sense that her work was simply "tokenism." The children's center was built, but Ms. Shearon ended up concluding: "I should've just gone on a real holiday."

Voluntourism -- a trip to an exotic destination combined with charitable work -- is booming. The group Greenforce offers a $2,150 penguin rescue-and-rehabilitation program in South Africa with accommodations and a "meal allowance" during six weeks of catching, feeding and cleaning up after penguins and other seabirds. But there also are mountain-biking and wine tours available for visitors' two days off per week.

Stay Another Day

Visitors to the Sangkheum Center for Children in Cambodia.

Some first-generation voluntourism programs were criticized as being less-than-fun for participants. And organizations such as London watchdog group Tourism Concern question the wisdom of dispatching unskilled volunteers for stints so short they're just disorienting. The group also questions projects where voluntourists displace locals on routine work, "as if local people weren't able to cook things or clean things or teach," says Tricia Barnett, the group's director.

As a result, a growing number of charities and tour groups are returning to the idea that tourists should just be tourists. Groups that want to funnel aid to poor communities now are appealing first to visitors' desire for a good experience, ahead of their work ethic and sense of sympathy. The rationale is that more tourists doing less produces more sustainable income and aid for local economies.

One program called Stay Another Day, run by an arm of the World Bank, steers tourists via a Web site and booklets to pre-evaluated activities that benefit the local community. Visitors to the Sangkheum Center for Children, an orphanage in Siem Reap, Cambodia, can tour the center, play with children and, if they wish, purchase the silk wares residents have learned to make. The visit is free, but visitors are invited to make a donation.

Tourists come to these programs to "experience the destination in a richer and more meaningful way," says Kate Lloyd-Williams, who runs the Stay Another Day program. "We have to start with the principle of: Is there anything to offer the tourist?" she says.

A Luang Prabang literacy program called Big Brother Mouse operates a community center where monks and other locals can practice their English every day with visiting tourists. Jodie Lambert, a 23-year-old Australian, on a recent morning swapped sentences about sunglasses and tattoos with an orange-robed novice monk named Mone. "If I could get a tattoo, I would get one here," Mone said, gesturing to his forearms. Ms. Lambert laughed.

The center also publishes inexpensive books in English and Lao. Tourists are invited to buy them, at a cost of $1 to $3 each, and distribute them to children, teachers and others as they travel around Laos.

Traditional voluntourism operators say they can accomplish these same aims but with longer stays. Mark Hintzke, who runs a two-week program restoring temples in Nepal, says he decided to tap tourists as a funding source because grant money was scarce. The $2,500 fee he charges visitors covers accommodations, and also helps pay for a local architect and local laborers. Voluntourists spend half a day with monks building walls or cleaning paintings. Then they spend the rest of the afternoon sightseeing. "It seemed natural that we take tourism dollars that were flowing into the country anyway and redirect them," Mr. Hintzke says.

Visiting Luang Prabang in May, Donna Sharpless, a 50-year-old Florida teacher, said she and her 56-year-old companion, Charley Williams, were relying on the Stay Another Day booklet to plan most of their activities -- and didn't realize that all of them were charitable endeavors. "We've just been using it as a guidebook," Ms. Sharpless says.

They rode elephants at an out-of-town camp for animals rescued from the logging industry. Fees of $69 per person for a one-day tour go to the animals' care. At first, Mr. Williams says, he worried they would be caught in a tourist trap. But in the end, he says, the experience was "good for the actual program and good for us."