Voluntourism

Isabel Murphy Voluntourism is a term which has been used since the 1990s, when many travellers started searching for ‘authentic experiences’ as opposed to typical holidays. It is a mixture of volunteering and tourism, where individuals supposedly support those more disadvantaged whilst simultaneously having the opportunity to travel somewhere...

At over 2 million, the UK has a hefty student population and it is only set to grow. The colossal flux of students entering and exiting the academic wheel of university every year means that summer internships are becoming thin on the ground and graduate schemes are practically gold-dust....

I’m sorry, but I’m taking a stand. I have categorically, absolutely, wholeheartedly had enough of so called ‘voluntourism’. Like many a modern day phenomena, it expresses itself through social media, and this is where one becomes alerted to the mass exodus each summer of university undergraduates on such stints....