Dr volunteer and Mr tourist : lifting the guilt off volunteer tourism

Tomazos, Konstantinos (2016) Dr volunteer and Mr tourist : lifting the guilt off volunteer tourism. Journal of Tourism & Hospitality, 5 (6). pp. 1-8. 1000258. ISSN 2167-0269 (https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-0269.1000258)

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Abstract

Debating commodified and decommodified forms of volunteer tourism is a Sisyphean task and one that disorientates from the real goal that should be to deliver volunteer tourism that could make a positive difference to the lives of the local recipients. In the dawn of volunteer tourism the focus was the local recipients, but for marketing reasons the volunteer took certain stage with the known consequences. Accepting volunteer tourism as incompletely commoditized will accept the commercial side of volunteer tourism, as a necessity, lift the guilt that haunts the industry and focus on what really matters, and that is the local recipients.