Benefits and opportunities of international volunteer tourism - sustainable travel post pandemic

This paper critically examines the volunteer tourism industry. It looks at its history and rapid development in order to shed light on the dark side if this industry. It shows that volunteering can be exploitative and oftentimes fails to deliver benefits to local communities due to a focus on profit and the demand side. It also demonstrates how meaningful projects are hard to find and what needs to be done to match and prepare volunteers more adequately. The authors highlight what both travelers and the industry can do to develop a more balanced and beneficial volunteer experience post covid.