Researcher(s):
Emma Redfoot
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2011 Completed: May 2012 Go to project site
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Volunteer tourism as defined by Stephen Wearing in Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that make a Difference is a term that applies "to those tourists who, for various reasons, volunteer in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain environments, or research into certain aspects of society or environment."(2011, 1) The volunteer tourism industry has grown immensely in the last two decades with the popularization of gap years, alternative spring breaks, as well as the general increase in travel and ease of travel. The topic of volunteer tourism itself has elicited a lot of controversy emanating from the industry itself, volunteer blogs, academics, as well as non-profits. Volunteer tourists have their supporters as well as criticizers, but no matter what people agree that the industry is growing rapidly and it has a lot of resources, in the form of volunteers' time, money, and soap box, to impact the world for better or worse. In researching volunteer tourism impacts in the tourist center of Cusco, Peru both the positives and negatives of the industry will be illustrated.