Can volunteer tourism have a real impact in your destination?
We asked a similar question a few weeks ago: “Could volunteers actually help your agritourism project make money?”
Not long after, we saw the news that the Grenada Tourism Authority had launched their own voluntourism program as a country.
The programme’s goal: “To bridge the gap between travellers visiting for leisure and travellers interested in volunteering their time to support a charitable cause.”
The goal? To enrich a visitor’s experience, create ties with the community, and, hopefully, lead to return visits.
Among the first series of projects that are being included in this programme are two agritourism projects:
The Annandale Community Project, a project nearby a waterfall that highlights the “importance of the farm-to-table experience and builds pride in the community” by giving volunteers the chance to plant, reap, and clean produce
Myristic Mountain, where visitors can help with organic farming, weeding, harvesting, planting, cutting, digging, and tending to the horses.
This contrasts with how we talked about volunteer tourism before in two ways.
First, this program is intended to give visitors the chance to spend a morning or afternoon with a project instead of planning their whole trip around staying at a farm, for example.
Second, this is happening from the top down. A government agency is gathering up projects that have existing volunteer opportunities, creating a common connection between them, and offering to raise the profile for all.
While the impact remains to be seen, the potential is clear.
And to understand more about the design of the program and how that potential can be realized, we spoke with Sekou Stroude , the Director of Sales for the Grenada Tourism Authority about the goals they have for their new program.
In a wide-ranging conversation, we learned about:
How one iconic Costa Rica activity inspired their program
The importance of gathering a variety of projects together
How they are assessing a project’s readiness to host international volunteers
The potential obstacles involved in implementing voluntourism on a national scale
Why it’s valuable to offer some skill-based volunteer opportunities
How this program is designed to enrich the experience of a visitor
The key to getting stakeholder buy-in
How volunteering can lead to repeat tourist visits
The audio of the interview is above, or you can click below to watch the interview in full.
Can volunteers lead to repeat tourist visits? | Interview with Grenada Tourism Authority