Volunteer travel a boom or a bust?

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Local press in sending countries will often focus on the huge benefits of intercultural exchange for the participants. However, much of the national coverage in these traditional markets has focussed heavily on the negative and often sensationalist coverage that can be gained from a few bad examples. While host country media often focuses on incredible examples of the positive impact that the volunteers gain, time and again this is based around a westernised view of “how the journalist thinks it ought to be”, without reference to the local realities of daily life in host countries.

The discussion consensus is that within any sector that there will be good and bad players and it is part of our duty as the WYSE Travel Confederation to ensure that best practice is disseminated and the good stories are also told.

In the discussion there was also agreement that volunteering is an intercultural learning experience that is both selfish and selfless, but that there is nothing wrong with this. Volunteers are developing a huge range of personal skills and if attending a well-run project can also contribute to a sustainable on-going impact.

Upon their return home they re-integrate as better-informed global citizens who will continue to benefit from the positive impact of the volunteer experience throughout their lives.

In 2015, WYSE completed research relating to the impacts on the volunteer of travelling and volunteering overseas. A broad spectrum of volunteers from 77 organisations participated in what became an overwhelmingly positive report.

This is now being followed up with a similar survey specifically aimed at collecting information from the local project partners as to the impacts of overseas volunteers and the organisations that send them on their projects and communities.