Volunteer-Tourism: risks and chances
German and South African Views
Volunteer tourism is getting increasingly popular, even though as a tourism segment it has not played a major role yet. As part of her research, Nikola Schiekel has collected views on ‘voluntourism' from Germany and South Africa. Heinz Fuchs, EED-Tourism Watch regards volunteer tourism as a "work programme for joint action and learning". He points out that participants need to be carefully selected and well prepared.
Jennifer Seif of "Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa" (FTTSA) suggests to introduce a code of conduct for volunteer tourism. Bridges are being built through personal relationships between tourists and local people, emphasizes Jasmin Johnson of the "Southern Africa Sustainable Development Initiative" (SASDI). Through their activities upon their return, volunteer tourists can continue to support their partner projects.
(Translation: Christina Kamp)