Lessons I Learned

In response to the Worldchanging article which highlighted a previous post I had written about my thoughts on Voluntourism, added these comments:

Tourism itself is causing a lot of the problems I see growing in Cambodia. Unfortunately putting the complete breaks on tourism would probably be similar to trying to stop a run away train (though the economy is surely grinding its wheels a bit)…. I get asked why, if I don’t think tourism is doing great things for Cambodia and I’m very critical of voluntourism I am then working in the industry itself. Good question. My answer: because it isn’t going to stop if I go home. Voluntourism is such a popular concept now, that poor attempts at traveler’s philanthropy programs are popping up everywhere. I would rather stay here and try to do it better, as I believe it can be done, than not provide a more responsible (in my opinion) option than what is currently being advertised in Cambodia.(At PEPY) we have done some post-tour surveys (a year+ after our tours) to see what effects our trips have had on everyday behaviors, and although the effects are not always huge and not everyone admits big changes in their lives, we have seen that our tours do indeed impact the ways people travel and live once they leave. I think that is indeed possible to change behaviors if tours are designed to do that, if the concept of taking these attitude shifts home is discussed thoroughly on the trip itself, if there is a community which the travelers can still be a part of once they return, and if there is follow up initiated by both the travel operator and the guests. No, it’s not better than not having camera-yielding paparazzi-like groups trek through rural villages in the first place, but if you don’t allow the cameras and you weave education into the framework of the trip, it is better than many alternatives, in my opinion.

I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this. I would also love to know if other organizations conduct post-voluntourism surveys at an attempt at measuring long-term behavior changes. If you do something like that, let me know, as we’d love to exchange ideas with others looking to track this information!