It’s been called responsible or socially conscious travel and volunteer tourism (Voluntourism): Spend your vacation in a developing country helping out in a clinic or school or working on conservation or building projects – all on your dime.
Once the stuff of church mission programs, volunteer sojourns are now being offered by a growing number of non- and for-profit American companies. Many focus their itineraries on Africa and entice clients with the opportunity to scale Mount Kilimanjaro, participate in a safari or hike forests in search of endangered mountain gorillas.
For participants, voluntourism is the ultimate way to experience a country without a guidebook. Trips tend to be more immersive and meaningful; travelers report a more authentic experience.
Africa ranks among the world’s top three volunteer destinations, according to voluntourism.org, a nonprofit committed to educating, empowering and engaging volunteers and host communities. Most voluntourists spend one to two weeks participating in educational and training programs, construction projects and working with children.
While volunteer travelers are making an impact and spending money locally, there’s also some criticism that the most pressing needs of beneficiary communities are more complex than a one or two-week project, and that change should originate locally.
Although there’s no breakdown between regular tourists and volunteers, African nations are experiencing a boon in visitors.
Travel and tourism’s direct contribution to the African economy was $33.5 billion in 2011 and is projected to reach $57.7 billion by 2022, according to its Travel & Tourism Council. More than 9.1 million international tourists visited South Africa in 2012 — up 10 percent from the previous year and more than double the average 4 percent global growth estimated by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The U.S. ranked as South Africa’s second largest overseas tourism market, right behind the United Kingdom.
Identified as one of the key sectors for economic growth, tourism in Africa will fuel the need for more hotels and activities to accommodate the growing number of tourists.
Cross-Cultural Solutions, a New Rochelle, N.Y.-based non-profit, has sponsored international volunteer travel for nearly 20 years and operates programs in 10 countries, including five sites in four African countries. In 2012, it hosted 938 volunteers in Ghana, South Africa, Morocco and Tanzania, according to Alexis Margolin, digital content manager and staff writer.
The organization promotes people-to-people volunteer work and encourages participants to engage in the community, share meals with local residents, shop at local markets and ultimately make a real connection with Africa’s cultures and people.
“We train and employ a team of staff members from the community in all of these sites,” Margolin said. “This provides sustainable income, fair wages and support to the local economy. It also is critical to our being able to address local issues, as we trust local people to be the experts.”
Cross-Cultural Solutions, she said, also sources all food, water, transportation, materials, lodging, cultural speakers and activities locally, further stimulating each community’s economy “in a sustainable way.”
The organization also recommends its volunteers bring at least $100 spending money for each week of their stay.
ET African Journey, a joint African safari and tour partnership between Ethiopian Airlines and New York’s cultural tour company Group IST, included a volunteer component to its recent 12-day Mount Kilimanjaro hike and pop-up restaurant. After scaling the peak, climbers descended 12,500 feet to a base camp, where they were treated to a gourmet feast prepared by renowned African Chef Pierre Thiam, in what the company dubbed the “world’s highest-altitude pop-up restaurant.”
Participants then spent two days volunteering at Tanzania’s St. Timothy’s School, built by Mama Hope, a non-profit organization that invests in projects which bring food, security, clean water, education and health care to African communities.
