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Volunteer tourism and the intratourist gaze

ABSTRACT This qualitative research study explores how a group of 27 UK-based undergraduate students made meaning of their experiences as they prepared for, participated in and reflected upon a 10-week international volunteer excursion in Kenya. Through an inspection of repeated semi-structured interviews, and drawing upon the ‘intratourist gaze’ as an analytical framework, this article examines participants’ attempts to highlight distinctions between themselves and other volunteers – a grouping they referred to broadly (and derogatorily) as ‘voluntourists’. In short, participants sought to stake the moral high ground by differentiating between their own volunteer project choice and (1) projects which were shorter term, (2) projects which provided unskilled forms of labour and (3) projects which masqueraded as volunteering, but where the balance of time was actually spent ‘on holiday’. These accounts exhibit a competitive tone (a strong propensity to define and distinguish oneself from others) and help to illuminate the criteria and values upon which these young people evaluated their experiences overseas.