Voluntourism 101

In an effort to share the lessons we have learned in voluntourism and responsible philanthropy, our team at PEPY Tours reached out to others working in this area to come up with a list of questions, which travel operators can ask themselves to help improve their offerings.  These same questions can also be asked by travelers as they consider which travel provider to use and evaluate the benefits each operator provides to the communities in which they operate. You can view as well as download this comprehensive tool at Voluntourism101 website.

For those who don’t have the time to read the whole document now, here are five key areas we would consider when choosing a philanthropic travel provider:

1. Is the travel company transparent about how much of your tour fee is going to the programs you are supporting?  Is their marketing consistent with the itinerary they are offering?  (We don’t think length of time nor percentage of funding going to a project determines whether the project is good or not. A tour company can be very responsible even if none of your funding is going to support projects, as long as they make it clear from the start and the program is designed responsibly.)

2. What interaction with children is included in your itinerary?  Is the interaction described like a visit to the zoo?  Are there child protection policies in place?  If it were YOUR child, would you be ok with the type of itinerary and interaction being offered?

3. How does the travel company choose the programs it supports?  Ask questions about how your time and any additional support offered by the company itself are designed and what monitoring they do on the impact of these programs.  How is the community or NGO partner involved in designing the programs?

4. Are you giving things away (school supplies, food, wells, etc) on your tour?  How are the recipients chosen?  Is the program designed to help empower people to be able to improve their own lives, or to serve as a small bandaid to a larger problem?  If the item is something that will need repair in the future, how is that being dealt with?  Is there community ownership built into the project plan?

5. What about the REST of the trip?  There is so much focus on volunteer interactions and donations as a key to improving the impact of tourism, but perhaps the best way we can improve the impact of tourism is in the “everything else” category.  How does the travel operator choose its hotel partners/travel operators and how do they work together to both support the local economy and improve the overall impact of their tours?

Hopefully thinking about these things will make us all better prepared to pick the best partners for our future travel. To read the complete checklist, please visit Voluntourism 101 website.