Fixing Voluntourism: Building the Ark

Voluntourism, the meshing of the terms “volunteer” and “tourism”, is an easy mark for the great debate on the ethics of western development in developing countries. The debate makes small difference, however, because despite international outrage and criticism of the industry, these volunteers are going to travel overseas and they are going to find projects to support. In the face of the absolute knowledge that the multibillion dollar voluntourism industry is a permanent part of the tourism and development landscapes, it’s more productive to instead ask the community: How can we build an ark?