The importance of child protection in Volunteer Tourism. A gap analysis for risk identification and derivation of recommendation for action

      Аннотация: The term voluntourism has emerged with the commodification of volunteering missions in the past decade. This has directed to a change in focus from the needs of local communities and especially from children on-site to the adaption of programmes according to tourists' demand. With the increasing demand to work with vulnerable children in orphanages for short periods of time, which is more disadvantageous for the orphans, the need for child protection in the industry becomes highly apparent. This book introduces the subject of volunteer tourism and draws the relationship to corporate responsibility. It detects the impacts on children with special concern to orphanage establishments. An analysis of the current market of providers gives insights about the “non-existence” of child protection. Accordingly, four main gaps that display a risk for child protection can be settled, which leads to five major steps that providers should take to limit negative impacts for children. The book concludes that there should be no short-term missions involving direct contact with children and that all actors within the industry have to further enforce child protection and promote awareness.

Ключевые слова: Volunteer Tourism, child protection