Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

Volunteer tourism can provide participants and hosts with insights into cultural diversity by providing a unique tourism experience. Undercurrents of inequality filter through the way voluntourism is conceived of and experienced by tourists, who are afforded the privilege of global mobility and can therefore choose to travel to “make a difference.” This qualitative research examined the experiences of young female voluntourists who visited Delhi as part of a trip organised by an Australian University Postgraduate Student Association. The aim was to investigate the motives and potentialities embedded in their experience through interviews and journal contributions. Conceptualisations of mapping (cartography) and territorialisation informed the analysis. We found that participants mainly engaged with the experience on a superficial level within the known territory. This reflects ‘soft global citizenship’ as participants were uncritical about their interactions with the host community. Voluntourist experiences have the potential to destabilise the self in a process of deterritorialisation, and we contend that this is where change occurs. We bring the philosophical theorising of Deleuze and Guattari and their notions of territorialisation and cartography to the field of tourism and argue that their geophilosophical ideas lead to fruitful insights around negotiating volunteer expectations, tribulations and potential transformations.