Meaning & use
voluntourism
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Travel in which people spend part of a holiday doing unpaid work, such as building or teaching, in a community abroad.
Grammar: No plural or article: voluntourism is growing.
Patterns
- voluntourism in somewhere
- a voluntourism project
Voluntourism lets travelers spend a week building classrooms in a village.
Critics say short-term voluntourism can take jobs from local workers.
She chose voluntourism over a beach holiday and spent two weeks helping at an animal shelter.
Common combinations
- a voluntourism trip
- They booked a voluntourism trip to Peru.
- voluntourism industry
- The voluntourism industry is worth billions.
- criticize voluntourism
- Writers often criticize voluntourism for helping tourists more than locals.
- ethical voluntourism
- Ethical voluntourism asks whether the project truly meets local needs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- volunteer tourism
- Volunteer tourism is the fuller, more neutral form of the same idea.
- service travel
- Service travel sounds more formal and is often used by schools and charities.
- humanitarian tourism
- Humanitarian tourism puts the aid element first, whereas voluntourism highlights the holiday element.
Word family
- volunteer noun
- someone who works without pay
- voluntourist noun
- a traveler who volunteers on holiday
- tourism noun
- travel for pleasure
- volunteering noun
- working without pay
Commonly confused: voluntourism or volunteering?
voluntourism vs volunteering
Volunteering can happen at home; voluntourism specifically combines volunteering with travel.
Practice
A holiday where tourists help build a school abroad is an example of ______.
Choose one answer.
Voluntourism combines unpaid work with travel; ecotourism focuses on nature, and the other options do not involve volunteering.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “voluntourism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.