This article considers the crucial role played by local volunteer tourism coordinators in Cusco, Peru. Previous studies tend to neglect this population, but as gatekeepers facilitating interactions between international sending agencies, volunteer tourists, and the aid communities they serve, coordinators are uniquely positioned to comment on multiple facets of the industry. I argue that their continuous juggling of contradictory goals—the satisfaction of their tourist clients, the economic viability of their employers’ placement businesses, the charitable aims of the project beneficiaries receiving their volunteers—points to larger tensions between commercial and philanthropic aims. In analyzing the practices and narratives of five coordinators, I draw attention to this particular group of actors’ struggles to reconcile the same moral and applied dilemmas of ‘making a difference,’ profit, representation, and sense of self and purpose that other sector participants experience.
AllahyariR. (2000) Visions of Charity: Volunteer Workers and Moral Community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
2.
AndereckK.McGeheeN. G.LeeS.. (2012) “Experience Expectations of Prospective Volunteer Tourists,” Journal of Travel Research51(2): 130–41.
3.
BaileyA. W.RussellK. C. (2012) “Volunteer Tourism: Powerful Programs or Predisposed Participants?,” Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management19: 123–32.
4.
BianchiR. V.StephensonM. L. (2013) “Deciphering Tourism and Citizenship in a Globalized World,” Tourism Management39: 10–20.
5.
BornsteinE. (2001) “Child Sponsorship, Evangelism, and Belonging in the Work of World Vision Zimbabwe,” American Ethnologist28(3): 595–622.
6.
BornsteinE. (2009) “The Impulse of Philanthropy,” Cultural Anthropology24(4): 622–51.
7.
BornsteinE.RedfieldP. (2010) Forces of Compassion: Humanitarianism between Ethics and Politics. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press.
8.
ButcherJ. (2012) “Volunteer Tourism May Not be as Good as it Seems,” pp. 159–61 in SinghT. V. (ed.) Critical Debates in Tourism. Buffalo, NY: Channel View Publications.
9.
ButcherJ.SmithP. (2010) “‘Making a Difference’: Volunteer Tourism and Development,” Tourism Recreation Research35(1): 27–36.
10.
CaldwellM. L. (2004) Not by Bread Alone: Social Support in the New Russia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
11.
CallananM.ThomasS. (2005) “Volunteer Tourism—Deconstructing Volunteer Activities within a Dynamic Environment,” pp. 183–200 in NovelliM. (ed.) Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issues, Trends and Cases. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
12.
ColesT.FenclovaE.DinanC. (2013) “Tourism and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critical Review and Research Agenda,” Tourism Management Perspectives6: 122–41.
13.
ConranM. (2011) “They Really Love Me! Intimacy in Volunteer Tourism,” Annals of Tourism Research38(4): 1454–73.
14.
CrossleyÉ. (2012) “Poor but Happy: Volunteer Tourists’ Encounters with Poverty,” Tourism Geographies14(2): 235–53.
15.
DekkerP.HalmanL. (eds) (2003) The Values of Volunteering: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
16.
GrayN. J.CampbellL. M. (2007) “A Decommodified Experience? Exploring Aesthetic, Economic, and Ethical Values for Volunteer Ecotourism in Costa Rica,” Journal of Sustainable Tourism15(5): 463–82.
17.
GuttentagD. (2012) “Volunteer Tourism: As Good as It Seems?,” pp. 152–59 in SinghT. V. (ed.) Critical Debates in Tourism. Buffalo, NY: Channel View Publications.
18.
LyonsK. D.WearingS. (eds) (2008) Journeys of Discovery in Volunteer Tourism: International Case Study Perspectives. Wallingford: CAB International.
19.
LyonsK. D.HanleyJ.WearingS.. (2012) “Gap Year Volunteer Tourism: Myths of Global Citizenship?,” Annals of Tourism Research39(1): 361–78.
20.
McGeheeN. G.SantosC. A. (2005) “Social Change, Discourse and Volunteer Tourism,” Annals of Tourism Research32(3): 760–79.
21.
MekawyM. A. (2012) “Responsible Slum Tourism: Egyptian Experience,” Annals of Tourism Research39(4): 2092–113.
22.
MorgenS.MaskovskyJ. (2003) “The Anthropology of Welfare ‘Reform’: New Perspectives on U.S. Urban Poverty in the Post-Welfare Era,” Annual Review of Anthropology32: 315–38.
23.
MostafanezhadM. (2013) “The Geography of Compassion in Volunteer Tourism,” Tourism Geographies15(2): 318–37.
24.
MostafanezhadM. (2014) “Volunteer Tourism and the Popular Humanitarian Gaze,” Geoforum54: 111–18.
25.
MowforthM.MuntI. (2003) Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World, 2nd edn.New York, NY: Routledge.
26.
NyahunzviD. K. (2013) “Come and Make a Real Difference: Online Marketing of the Volunteering Experience to Zimbabwe,” Tourism Management Perspectives7: 83–88.
27.
PoppendieckJ. (1998) Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement. New York, NY: Viking.
28.
RaymondE. (2012) “Volunteer Tourism: Looking Forward,” pp. 161–66 in SinghT. V. (ed.) Critical Debates in Tourism. Buffalo, NY: Channel View Publications.
29.
RaymondE. M.HallC. M. (2008) “The Development of Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understanding Through Volunteer Tourism,” Journal of Sustainable Tourism16(5): 530–43.
30.
RichterL. M.NormanA. (2010) “AIDS Orphan Tourism: A Threat to Young Children in Residential Care,” Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies5(3): 217–29.
31.
SaarinenJ. (2006) “Traditions of Sustainability in Tourism Studies,” Annals of Tourism Research33(4): 1121–40.
32.
SackD. (2000) Whitebread Protestants: Food and Religion in American Culture. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
33.
SchrauwersA. (2003) “Through a Glass Darkly: Charity, Conspiracy, and Power in New Order Indonesia,” pp. 125–47 in WestH. G.SandersT. (eds) Transparency and Conspiracy. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
34.
SimpsonK. (2004) “‘Doing Development’: The Gap Year, Volunteer-Tourists and a Popular Practice of Development,” Journal of International Development16: 681–92.
35.
SinH. L. (2009) “Volunteer Tourism—‘Involve Me and I Will Learn’?,” Annals of Tourism Research36(3): 480–501.
36.
SinH. L. (n.d.) Realities of Doing Responsibilities: Performances and Practices in Tourism. Unpublished paper.
37.
SinervoA. (2011) “Connection and Disillusion: The Moral Economy of Volunteer Tourism in Cusco, Peru,” Childhoods Today5(2): 1–23.
38.
SinervoA. (2013) “‘No Somos los Pobrecitos’: Negotiating Stigma, Identity, and Need in Constructions of Childhood Poverty in Cusco, Peru,” Childhood20(3): 398–413.
39.
SinervoA.HillM. (2011) “The Visual Economy of Andean Childhood Poverty: Interpreting Postcards in Cusco, Peru,” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology16(1): 114–42.
40.
SmithD. H. (ed.) (2005) Good Intentions: Moral Obstacles and Opportunities. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
41.
TomazosK.ButlerR. (2012) “Volunteer Tourists in the Field: A Question of Balance?,” Tourism Management33: 177–87.
42.
VrastiW. (2012) Volunteer Tourism in the Global South: Giving Back in Neoliberal Times. New York, NY: Routledge.
43.
WearingS. (2001) Volunteer Tourism: Experiences that Make a Difference. Wallingford: CAB International.
44.
WearingS.McGeheeN. G. (2013) “Volunteer Tourism: A Review,” Tourism Management38: 120–30.
45.
WearingS.McDonaldM.PontingJ. (2005) “Building a Decommodified Research Paradigm in Tourism: The Contribution of NGOs,” Journal of Sustainable Tourism13(5): 424–39.
46.
WearingS.WearingM.McDonaldM. (2010) “Understanding Local Power and Interactional Processes in Sustainable Tourism: Exploring Village-Tour Operator Relations on the Kokoda Track, Papua New Guinea,” Journal of Sustainable Tourism18(1): 61–76.
47.
WongJ.NewtonJ. D.NewtonF. J. (2014) “Effects of Power and Individual-Level Cultural Orientation on Preferences for Volunteer Tourism,” Tourism Management42: 132–40.
48.
ZahraA.McintoshA. J. (2007) “Volunteer Tourism: Evidence of Cathartic Tourist Experiences,” Tourism Recreation Research32(1): 115–19.
