Volunteer Tourism: Evidence of Cathartic Tourist Experiences

Finding oneself while discovering others: An existential perspective on volunteer tourism in Thailand

“…A desire to be challenged is a volunteer tourist motivation mentioned in several studies (Galley & Clifton, 2004;Grimm & Needham, 2012). As Zahra and McIntosh (2007) argue, since many young international volunteer tourists are sheltered from material hardship at home, coming face-to-face with the suffering of others while abroad poses a great challenge and causes anxiety and discomfort. However, overcoming this challenge, not to mention the challenge of ''working in a foreign culture and climate, dealing with their emotions and working with others" (Broad, 2003, p. 68), allows volunteers to 'see what they are made of' (Schott, 2011) while also leading to greater self-confidence (Proyrungroj, 2014).…”

Cosmopolitan empathy in volunteer tourism: a psychosocial perspective

“…While it may be the case that volunteer tourists feel for, and aspire to help, children living in poverty in particular parts of the world due to the prominence of such imagery in the media and volunteer tourism marketing, these figures also provide an ideological locus for cosmopolitan empathy to cohere around. The symbol of the vulnerable child permits volunteer tourists to engage with a nonthreatening, seemingly apolitical target of development in a way that not only generates the desired emotional experiences seen as critical for personal transformation to occur (Crossley, 2012a(Crossley, , 2012bZahra & McIntosh, 2007), but also implicitly maintains a paternalistic power dynamic between active, Northern care-givers and passive, Southern care-receivers (Barnett & Land, 2007;Mostafanezhad, 2013b;Silk, 2004;Sin, 2010). These are discourses and dynamics that serve the interests of the political and economic status quo, and so it is in this sense that cosmopolitan empathy can be conceived of as ideological.…”

“…In the context of volunteer tourism, this has located the individual volunteer tourist as the agent of change and has led to a proliferation of discourses of personal growth, transformative learning and moral self-development, for which we also find substantial empirical evidence from volunteer tourists' narratives (Coghlan & Gooch, 2011;Crossley, 2012b;McGehee & Santos, 2005;Zahra, 2011;Zahra & McIntosh, 2007). Wearing and Neil (2000) suggest that it is in part volunteer tourists' interactions with others from different cultural backgrounds that can bring about a renegotiation of identity and impact on the tourist's self so profoundly.…”

“…More specifically, Mostafanezhad (2013a) argues that vulnerable children in developing countries constitute the predominant object of compassion and empathy in volunteer tourism, revealing another dimension to an already uneven power dynamic between tourists and members of visited communities. Further studies have revealed the centrality of volunteer tourists' own socioeconomic status in feeling capable or inclined to undertake voluntary work, constructing a narrative that associates 'doing well in life' with wanting to 'give back' to disadvantaged communities (Brown & Lehto, 2005, p. 488;Zahra & McIntosh, 2007). The notion of 'giving something back', which is connected to a similar discourse of needing to 'make a difference' through ethical travel (Butcher & Smith, 2010;Raymond, 2008;Simpson, 2004;Vrasti, 2013), demonstrates the highly contextual nature of altruistic expressions, locating volunteer tourism as a potentially reparative act on the part of the global rich towards the global poor.…”

Pain, politics and volunteering in tourism studies

“…Research on international volunteer tourism emphasises volunteering as an emotionally charged practice (Zahra & McIntosh 2007). Volunteering often involves moral tasks that extend to one's personal belief system of how things 'ought to be'.…”