Volunteer Global

Recently I posted a poll asking how much one would be willing to pay for a weeklong volunteer excursion, not including airfare. Prices ranged from less than $500 to more than $5,000. Within two hours, I received the following responses:

• <$500: 13 votes
• $501-$1,000: 6 votes
• $1,001-$2,000: 1 vote
• $2,001+: 0 votes

It’s no secret that my “thing” is to promote the less expensive, less lavish volunteer activities. This isn’t due to a bias against luxury tours – it’s almost entirely because of the poll results above.

The poll and the population

The majority of Volunteering Global's visitors want a place to go and a way to give, but not necessarily for the finest accommodations and guided tours. They look for adventure – most of these people are single, 20-something individuals (usually women) who don’t have $6,000 to drop on a weeklong trip.

I had a discussion recently with several individuals interested in international volunteering.

• The high end of their budget was $2,000, not including the plane ticket, but including all in-country travel and support before, during, and after the project.
• They wanted to work with a local organization that had demonstrated volunteer support, i.e., positive alumni reviews, field reports, etc.
• They preferred a project that actively engaged them with the community – not just a one- or two-day activity, but instead something that showed they were needed for their education, career background, and abilities.
• Accommodation and food should be provided, but in what capacity, they didn’t care.

Budget was the main concern for all of them. The magic numbers were $2,000 and $500 – the former being the cutoff and the latter being the optimum. You’ll see this held true as well among my poll results from last week.

Luxury voluntourism

In 2009, Time Magazine, the Washington Post, and the New York Times [editor's note: link has moved] reported on luxury philanthropic travel as an exciting new style of vacation.

The luxury voluntourism operators I found are operated by hotel chains and travel agencies – and very well known ones at that. Airline tickets, hotel/resort stay, meals, and excursions are included in these costs. From my research, luxury voluntourism averages $6,000 per week.

Most (with a few exceptions) of the groups listed on Volunteering Global are small, community-based organizations that accept, not place, volunteers. Airline tickets are almost never covered, but meals, accommodations, and in-country transportation are included in these costs. The groups on VG average about $350 per week.

With the poll results in mind, where does luxury voluntourism fit? Who takes these trips? Are they really as popular as Time, NYT, and Washington Post make them sound, or are they just an interesting concept promoted heavily by large, media savvy travel agencies and hotel chains?

My guess is these aren’t aimed at the same people who gravitate to sites like mine. I believe silver spoon voluntourism is intended for an older generation and a different type of person – they’re adventurous, but they’ve got the extra money to spend and they want more stability security than my young, wild, debt-ridden counterparts.

For example: I’m fairly certain my parents would jump on the luxury voluntourism bandwagon, whereas they would balk at the idea of sleeping with 30 other people in a cabin without electricity. My parents are adventurous people -- their goal for many years has been to sail around the world, and in the meantime, they take luxury trips during the holidays to satisfy their itchy travel feet.

I will eat my hat if they decide to take a philanthropic trip that doesn't involve an all inclusive hotel stay (don't read this, mum and dad; I really like my hat and I know you'll take me up on the bet just because IT'S ON).

Questions

With the poll results in mind, do you think it would be worth it to list luxury trips on sites like mine? I do have a couple, but site analytics tell me they've gotten zero hits so far.

Have any of you been on a luxury voluntourism trip? How did it go? What did you do? And how did you find out about the organization?

Do you agree with the poll results? Unfortunately the poll was only up for a couple hours, so maybe it was just my nomadic Twitter friends who voted and skewed the results. Do you have a different answer for your optimum price of a one-week volunteer trip?

Feel free to leave a comment or email me at info@volunteerglobal.com. Really interested in hearing some feedback!