Enhance solitary travel experience with voluntourism projects

Volunteering while tourism is a novel style of mixing with unfounded cultures and interacting with unexpected challenges. Such a form of tourism has recently been named voluntourism.  A volunteer tourist travels abroad to offer help to those in need of support. Volunteering for a socio-environmental cause is a good option for solitary travellers. Before setting out on a travel expedition, the voluntourist must search the best solo travel destinations worldwide. Volunteering while travelling provides the much needed escape from the complexities of routine lifestyle and aids in self-discovery. Such experience helps you optimise time and efforts and leaves experiences to cherish forever. 

Volunteering tourism is a billion dollar industry and is growing on a continual basis. More and more individuals want to experience the journey of a voluntourist. 

Volunteering tourism can help in cross-cultural understanding and promote global welfare. It is thus expanding in range and there are many sectors into which voluntourism activities can be classified.

Community welfare

Volunteer tourists can associate with organisations engaged in humanitarian projects such as child care, caring for the disabled, caring for the sick and elderly people, fighting for citizens’ legal and ethical rights, skill development courses for the underprivileged areas etc.

Voluntary teaching 

Anybody who loves to travel alone must never miss the opportunity of joining teaching campaigns for the underprivileged. Through such socially connected activities, the tourist enhances the travel experience. 

Many voluntourists teach English as a foreign language in countries like Nepal and Bhutan. Tourists proficient in English can share their knowledge through creative techniques. It is always good to connect with strangers and exchange learnings with them. Tourists can also start teaching programmes in various foreign languages like French, German, Russian or Spanish.

Apart from teaching languages like English or French, voluntourists can do sports coaching. Sports coaching helps to identify talent from remote areas and provides them the right platform.  Many volunteering institutions are on the lookout for daring individuals with a charitable mindset. Through your performance and conviction, you can win their trust and represent their mission wherever you go. Volunteering associations can even sponsor your trip to new areas if they feel you are the right person to spread their objective worldwide. 

Nature and environment care activities for voluntourists

Volunteer tourists have the great opportunity to travel far and wide to spread the message of environment friendly living by engaging in large scale environmental care projects. 

Organic farming

As a volunteer tourist, you can work in an organic farm in Brazil. Many associations seek talented tourists with an entrepreneurial mindset to try organic farming.  You can also engage in internship programmes and get free accomodation during the learning term. Thus, you can identify new avenues in sustainable farming. Similar to organic farms of Brazil, many other nations have farms where you can try out farming while traveling solo.

Elephant care programmes in Thailand

Thailand is the land of white elephants. Anybody who tours Thailand will never miss the opportunity of watching the gigantic white creatures. So undoubtedly, Thailand features in the list of best solo travel destinations worldwide. Caring for these loving white elephants is a generous activity. Caressing boosts dopamine levels of the tourist and improves emotional health and wellbeing. Animal care is one of the activities to rediscover the true inside of you. 

Building and construction projects

Many organisations provide the opportunity of building construction activities for tourists who love to engage in do it yourself projects including masonry or construction of temporary shelters. 

Medical voluntourism

The medical sector requires many volunteers who are ready to offer hospitality services to the patients. During the pandemic opportunities really grew for altruistic people who were ready to undertake risk to work in the quarantine centres. Through such volunteering projects, the tourists can develop medical skills and proficiency in health care. They can also engage in mass awareness programmes helping people prevent infectious diseases by following safety measures. Voluntourists can also engage in mass awareness campaigns on the usage of masks, gloves, goggles and personal protective equipment.

Mixed voluntourism packages for voluntourists 

Auroville is an experimental township in Tamil Nadu, India. At Auroville there are volunteering opportunities for tourists in wide range of activities like alternative healthcare, ecological practices, renewable energy awareness and capacity upscaling, architectural initiatives, animal care etc. 

Benefits of being a volunteering tourist

A volunteering tourist gets the opportunity to expand his network and earn a global reputation. Voluntourists also improve their skill set through consistent practice. They improve both leadership and teaching skills by connecting with people and engaging in volunteering teaching programmes. Volunteering tourists travel across remote corners of the world and are confronted with challenging situations. Voluntourism helps to achieve personal growth. Few people join volunteering projects to learn a new language. Some want to try a deep cultural immersive experience. 

Pitfalls of being a volunteering tourist

Volunteering tourism is a huge industry nowadays. An aspirant may join an organisation with hopes of being a voluntourist. But in reality the system may be too convoluted. Sometimes, the organisations or the tour operator derive the maximum share of profits while those who actually need financial support stay deprived of the ultimate benefits. If the organisation is not well managed, voluntourism might fail to serve the purpose leaving the individual tourists disappointed despite efforts. Voluntourists can face issues such as linguistic barriers or face cultural shocks. Sometimes, they get physically exhausted in trying to achieve their objective. Sometimes the consequences of volunteering activities are not very immediate or explicit. Volunteering projects are short-term in nature and the tourist might have to leave the project without actually being able to test the results. 

Procedure of becoming a voluntourist

Before commencing on the plan, a tourist needs to conduct prior research. Volunteering tourism is offered by organisations as a paid project. The tourist needs to pay for expenses on housing, administration, materials and on-site staff support. Voluntourists are mostly lone travellers. So, they must utilise the liberty of thought process and choice of destinations. One should try to find the best solo travel destinations. Then based on the various places, the tourist must seek opportunities to provide any kind of volunteering service. 

Sometimes it is easy to find reputed organisations with good track records in voluntourism. Reputed firms provide details of costs incurred as they need to provide supporting infrastructure to the tourists. Voluntourists must check reviews and feedback by other tourists before joining such well known firms. Sometimes, the organisations are recent and developing.  Voluntourists must not be afraid to try out the emerging firms as they can get some realistic opportunities by joining such firms. 

Conclusion

Voluntourism is a great option for passionate travellers who aren’t afraid to travel solo. Volunteering while touring places far and wide from home provides the facility of work while you travel. Volunteering tourists or voluntourists are entitled to benefits such as free accomodation by reputed charitable firms spread across different corners of the world. Also while touring solitary travellers can connect with like minded people and get opportunities for exchanging knowledge and experiences. Thus anybody aspiring to be a voluntourist must remember to navigate best solo travel destinations for volunteering tourism.