Volunteering in Tourism: Opportunities, Challenges & Ethics

This essay delves into the multifaceted aspects of volunteering within the tourism industry, highlighting its increasing popularity as a form of travel that combines vacationing with contributing to communities worldwide. It explores the rights and responsibilities of volunteers, emphasizing the importance of safety, fair negotiation, and ethical conduct. The essay further discusses the positive impacts of volunteer tourism, such as cultural exchange and community support, while also acknowledging potential negative consequences like exploitation and fund mismanagement. It underscores the significance of volunteering in tourism for both personal enrichment and the sustainable development of host communities, particularly in underdeveloped regions, and emphasizes the role of volunteers in preserving cultural heritage and promoting responsible tourism practices. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study tools for students.

Volunteering in tourism industry

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

ESSAY
Volunteering in tourism tends to show higher degree of linkage between the tourism
practices as well as volunteering activity. Volunteering in tourism mainly states volunteering the
time, energy, skills within an organisation in order to make a difference within community across
the world as a part of vacation package. Volunteering in tourism is considered to be as one of
the new way of travelling. This has become increasingly popular across the world (A definition of
volunteer tourism: What is it and where does it fit in the broad tourism industry?, 2019).
Volunteering in tourism is mainly associated with the people who volunteer overseas when they
tend to travel. It is mainly associated with the ecotourism with the main objective to improve
lives and experience of the people. Volunteering in tourism tends to mainly focus on helping
people or help out on a specific project. Volunteering within the tourism industry plays one of
the integral part within the society and travelling it tends to become much more accessible.
Volunteer tourism is considered to be a significant type of tourism and individual tends to travel
abroad to a specific destination in order to support those who are in need.
The key rights associated with the volunteer in tourism sector is that they have the right to
feel safe, they have right to leave at any time, they have right to negotiate with volunteer role,
they have right to feel valued and give constructive feedback and lastly they also have right to
information, supervision and training for project or volunteer role (Qi, 2020). The key
responsibility of the volunteer within tourism industry is to communicate the needs the degree of
accuracy and do not assume anything. Another major responsibility of the volunteers is to follow
through the obligation and focus on improving the reputation of the volunteers across the globe.
Another major responsibility is not to promise which the individual person cannot deliver. It is of
crucial importance than the world of voluntarism. Another major responsibility of the volunteer
within tourism industry is to keep all the information confidential and provide best quality
services by complying with all the policies and procedures.
Volunteering in tourism is considered to be as a combination of combining passion of the
individual person for travelling and also giving back to the countries by volunteering. This helps
in attaining higher degree of social needs (Paraskevaidis and Andriotis, 2017). Voluntarism is
considered to be one of the great opportunity to lend volunteering organisation a helping hand
and give them financial support. Volunteering in tourism is considered to be highly beneficial for
short-term volunteer holidays. This is considered to be highly beneficial for the individual person
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who wants to travel as well as volunteer in an exotic country. This is a great opportunity to
explore new culture. Volunteering in tourism tends to have high degree of positive impact on
society and also economic and natural environment. It enables the volunteers to gain wide degree
of experience. On the contrary, volunteering in tourism tends to have great degree of negative set
of effects which leads to exploitation and also powerful individuals taking advantage of the
vulnerable people and children within the society (Frazer and Waitt, 2016). There is a risk that
funds might go to the tourism industry instead of the community. However, volunteers within
the tourism industry mainly focuses on preserving the beautiful sites and ensures that they
largely care about the tourism industry. It helps in significantly provide specific set of services in
order to meet the needs of the market within the tourism industry. Also, volunteering
opportunities is significant for the underdeveloped countries especially like Ghana, South Africa,
Nepal and Cambodia. However, volunteering in tourism leads to donation and also fundraising
for the specific region when the trip is over. This eventually leads to well- rounded travel
experience. It is considered to be crucial in helping the specific project for the certain project.
Volunteers also tends to help in offering certain degree of expertise linked with the project. The
volunteers has great degree of opportunity to effectively explore the specific surroundings and
also sightseeing the beautiful country (A definition of volunteer tourism: What is it and where
does it fit in the broad tourism industry?, 2019). It also gives great degree of opportunity to
understand the heritage culture by connecting with the local community. It also helps in making
work aware about the specific destination community and culture.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Frazer, R. and Waitt, G., 2016. Pain, politics and volunteering in tourism studies. Annals of
Tourism Research, 57, pp.176-189.
Paraskevaidis, P. and Andriotis, K., 2017. Altruism in tourism: Social exchange theory vs
altruistic surplus phenomenon in host volunteering. Annals of Tourism Research, 62, pp.26-37.
Qi, H., 2020. Host volunteering in tourism as a voluntary exchange. Current Issues in Tourism,
pp.1-14.
Online
A definition of volunteer tourism: What is it and where does it fit in the broad tourism industry?.
2019. [ONLINE]. Available through< https://tourismteacher.com/definition-volunteer-tourism/>
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