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A New Alternative Market Of Tourism Essay

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Volunteer tourism- also known as “Voluntourism”- is part of a new alternative market of tourism. It consists of tourists taking part in volunteer oppportunities while they go on vacation, usually in a developing country. (Hanson Pastran 2014) While this sounds like a positive idea, and it can be, it is important to consider the efficacy (or lack thereof) of voluntourism, and the fact that it could potentially perpetuate more harm than good. It can be hard to believe that a concept like voluntourism- that was supposedly built on the premises of helping people- could be a negative concept. It isn’t always negative, it can in fact be beneficial when it is done in a correct manner. However, in this paper I will be arguing that despite some of the cases in which voluntourism has proven to be effective and beneficial, there are numerous ways in which it can be not only ineffective- but also harmful. The harm is not caused through the physical volunteer work itself, but instead through the negative stereotypes of the Global South that are perpetuated by the agencies that organize these volunteer trips, as well as the neocolonialist tendencies that are displayed by those volunteer agencies- by Me to We in particular. The neocolonialism is evident through not only the actions of the organizers of the trips, but also through the marketing for Me to We. By perpetuating these kinds of messages in their advertising, harm is done to the impressionable youth that are exposed to this. The

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