Volunteer Vacations

Volunteer vacations are becoming increasingly popular in a society which is more involved, and indeed more aware, of communities that are less fortunate. Volunteering while on vacation are of course a result of the equally rapid increase of 'voluntourism'. These vacations consist of volunteering, ie working and helping without pay, for any kind of charitable cause - whether it's helping children, helping schools, or helping animals. Much like the rise of voluntourism, 'bite-sized' volunteer holidays have grown in popularity.

Volunteering is incredibly diverse, and can including very low-skill working - including cleaning up local wildlife areas. It also spans up to high-skill work, including medical aid in foreign countries that may have shortages of doctors, hospitals - or in areas that have suffered terrible natural disasters, leaving their community with no resources. Whilst these volunteering vacations are very much diverse, they typically share the same desire, which is to just do something good. It provides that feel good feeling that is terribly difficult to match. Whilst participating in this kind of vacation, volunteers also experience new places, and are subject to new challenges, in locales they probably would never have visited, otherwise!

Other types of traveling and volunteering allow people to engage with scientific research, and educational programs, which aim to promote the understanding and any kind of action necessary for the surrounding environment of the area in question, to be sustained. Volunteers tend to pay a fee that cover the expenses on the differing sites worldwide, and these people engage in projects that relate to their particular interests or location.

Traditionally, volunteer vacations have been undertaken by those who have a direct connection to a particular cause. Projects back then were considered more short term, and more intense - as fewer volunteers were available. Vacations have of course changed this, giving a greater amount of labour, to do greater good across the globe. Many of the organizations that previously performed short-term labour-intensive projects were long-standing international development assistance organisations, of which placed relatively short-term volunteers on project sites that assisted in community development.

In the 90s, the travel industry developed new and niche products, and indeed firms, which provided volunteer holidays to those who had no previous experience with a cause they were interested in. The travel industry also began to cater for the increasing amount of younger people, mostly those taking a gap year from University, who wanted to take advantage of volunteering. The providers of these services expanded this market, but they also drew criticism for the impact of the methods they used.

According to the Travel Industry Association of American, more than 55 million American citizens have taken part in a volunteer vacation, and roughly 100 million more are considering venturing out on one.

There are, like most things, some areas of controversy looming around the projects. Whilst these volunteer vacations are widely seen as an attempt to help communities, others have noted that the business methods used by tour operators, for example the exclusivity deals, directly exploit the communities the projects are intended to help.

Links

• More on what you can expect from volunteer vacations.