"Taking by Giving" - The Contradiction of Volunteer Tourism: A critical analysis of the possible impacts of volunteer tourism in the Global South

Abstract: During recent decades there has been a rapid growth of volunteer tourism whose nature and impact are increasingly questioned in both literature and media. This study aims to critically compare the intended positive impacts with the potential negative consequences of volunteer tourism. The objective is to gain insight into possible contradictions and harm of the practice. Furthermore, by applying a postcolonial theory and key concepts of discourse and the white savior complex to the findings, the thesis intends to explore potential neo-colonial tendencies. The study is conducted as a research overview with secondary data as the empirical foundation. Literature identifying the negative and positive impacts of volunteer tourism has been collected, compared, and analyzed based on the theoretical framework. The findings suggest there are multiple harmful contradictions stemming from volunteer tourism projects as the desired outcomes are being transformed into unintended harmful consequences. However, the main contradiction is the failure to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes for both the volunteers and the hosts. The neocolonial tendency that can be perceived is the presence of a white savior complex that originates in colonial discourse. Volunteer tourism reinforces the colonial discourse of white saviors rescuing helpless communities in the Global South which subsequently becomes an unquestioned truth. The narrative told of the superiority of the West and the inferiority of the rest of the world is harmful as it produces unequal structures of power, similar to colonial times. There is a need for further critical analyses of volunteer tourism as well as increased research on frameworks for the evaluation of volunteer initiatives. The volunteer tourism sector must be reconstructed to increase the positive impacts and decrease the negative consequences to become sustainable by ensuring both volunteers and hosts benefit from volunteer projects.