A critical case study of medical volunteer tourists in Peru

While there has been an increasing amount of research on volunteer tourism, limited empirical work has explored the phenomenon of medical volunteer tourism. This paper examines a Peru-based commercial volunteer tourism organisation to investigate the experiences of skilled and unskilled volunteer tourists at local medical clinics in Cusco, Peru. An analysis of in-depth interviews with twelve volunteers suggests volunteers performed similar tasks at the medical clinics regardless of their medical background. While it appears the volunteers improved their Spanish language skills and acquired medical experience at under-resourced clinics, they may or may not have benefited the local community