Volunteer Tourism in Cambodia: Persuasive Strategies of Recruitment and Postcolonial Impacts

honors thesisCollege of HumanitiesCommunicationMark ButtonAn emergent area within tourism is volunteer tourism, in which people journey to developing countries and perform service as part of their trip. These volunteers are typically young, well-educated Westerners. International volunteering is an increasingly popular option for tourists traveling abroad, and it is one of the fastest-growing markets for people interested in alternative tourism experiences. Volunteers genuinely want to do good by participating in service work, and many feel pressure as privileged global citizens to "help" or "save" the less fortunate. However, these sentiments become part of a problematic "white savior" complex. This thesis focuses on Cambodia to illustrate some of the problems that volunteer tourism brings, and it discusses the contribution of volunteer tourism to Western supremacy and the white savior complex