The Traveller's Summit

The Traveller's Summit

https://longlostforeverfound.neocities.org

!!!!Welcome!!!!

"The Traveller's Summit" is a blog centered around the travelling experiences and opinions of three friends: Bea, Oli and Leo (AKA Emma)!

- - - - - - - - - -

This week's dicussion topic was voluntourism!
Hm, I wonder what the internet's favourite micro-celebrities of the year of our Lord 2009 have to say about that!

Sponsor spot

Beatriz's take:

If I was invited to a voluntourism trip, I wouldn't go, not because I don't want to help people in other countries. On the contrary, I just believe this kind of travelling doesn't do much when it comes to easing poverty or other issues. Voluntourism is just an easy way for people who want to believe they are doing something great for the population they are visiting. But in the end, they are doing it solely to boost their egos and for extremely selfish reasons, to feel good about themselves. Alongside to the fact they don't really do much for the people they were supposed to be helping, focusing mostly on the picturesque views, the tourist locations or the restaurants where they could eat an absolutely delicious meal, rather than proceeding to help those who could use their assistance.

Now, another downside to this kind of trip is that voluntourism is incredibly expensive, since it is organized by companies, which will make sure that hardly a dent of the money you're paying for that trip will be seen by the population of the place you're heading to. Some strategies to decrease the negative consequences of voluntourism I suggest are to head off to places on your own, considering it would be less expensive than to go with a company. I also adivise to, instead of going somewhere you know nothing about to do something you're unqualified to do, donate the money you would spend on that trip so someone who knows what they are doing can effectively help.

Olivia's take:

Despite living in an area just off the beaten path in terms of tourism and not seeing many travelers throughout most of the year, I did have one appalling encounter with a particularly self-absorbed foreigner that left a lasting impression on how I perceive tourists in Brazil. One ordinary day, as I was on my way home from school, I heard a camera shutter noise just as I stepped off the subway and onto the platform. Once I turned to look, there was a korean tourist with his back turned to me, looking through his pictures as if nothing had happened. When I gathered up the courage to confront him and asked for my photo to be deleted, it was as if he suddenly gained consciousness of his actions and got all flustered. Thankfully he obliged without a fuss and apologized, but this kind of obnoxious behavior is a testament to one of the worst downsides of mass tourism in my opinion: how so many people tend to see the locals in the places they visit through an incredibly dehumanizing lens, almost like animals in a zoo, who they are free to bother as they please without repercussions.

Emma's take:

When it comes to voluntourism, my own personal view deviates from the major companies', which means it is rather negative. So, with that out of the way, if I were to ever be invited to go on a voluntourism trip I'd decline without wasting a second thought.

Overall, even with the supposedly good intentions coming from travellers, we cannot turn a blind eye to how they are short-sighted and the actual positive results that could trickle down to affect the majority of the community is not long-lasting. Furthermore, it can even lead to the dependence of said people on this external help.

Because of this, I thoroughly believe that finding ways to ease the downsides of engaging in voluntourism would be great. A couple things that would probably help out are: investing locally, teaching these communities how to replicate the work done by tourists, and making sure tourists have the skills to help that community.