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If you're tired of luxurious 5-star resort vacations, why not embark on a journey of 'volunteer tourism' to explore and learn something new and exciting? What is volunteer tourism, and what benefits does it bring? Let's delve into it with Vntrip and find out more!
1. What is Volunteer Tourism?
Volunteer tourism involves combining sightseeing, relaxation, and exploration with charitable and volunteer activities such as environmental protection, disaster prevention and recovery, contributing materials to support educational activities, or building infrastructure like schools and homes. This means that participants in these journeys are both tourists and volunteers at the same time.
Participants in volunteer tourism play the dual role of both tourists and volunteers. Image: Long Quang Le
With such characteristics, destinations for volunteer tourism are often places with advantages in local beauty and culture, as well as facing challenges in daily life, underdeveloped tourism, or tourist cities damaged by natural disasters.
2. What Does Volunteer Tourism Bring?
2.1. A Complete Experience of Local Culture
If you travel in the usual way, many of you might focus on 'Instagrammable' photos or be busy searching for beautiful check-in spots. However, volunteer tourism provides you with the opportunity to learn more about the people and their lives behind those natural scenes.
Experience the local culture. Image: Long Quang Le
This is a chance for you to see yourself as a local resident, living their lives and participating in their daily activities. Join the local people in exploring famous landscapes, understanding the unique culture, and getting to know the people in the region they are discovering. In this way, you'll realize that exploring a region in this manner is much more captivating and detailed than sitting in a tour vehicle, listening to scripted words from a guide.
2.2. Learn Valuable Lessons
The second reason to consider when choosing to participate in a volunteer trip is that you will have the opportunity to experience, learn, and access new understanding and knowledge. Volunteer tourism will help you gain valuable experiences for personal development. Getting involved in volunteer tourism means you'll have to travel long distances in unusual weather, climb mountains, cross streams, or eat in communal settings, allowing you to develop survival skills to adapt to the environment.
Learn many new skills. Image: VEO
Furthermore, the benefits of volunteer tourism also lie in providing you with various soft skills such as game management experience, public speaking experience, teamwork experience, conflict resolution skills, and reconciliation skills. Additionally, you'll acquire practical skills such as teaching children, repairing houses, working on electrical wiring, or engaging in handicrafts.
Especially, volunteer trips not only enhance cultural exchange, broaden social knowledge, and improve life skills but also provide an opportunity for you to appreciate what you have, value your health, and happiness more. Most importantly, you'll recognize the meaningful aspects of life.
2.3. Aid Local Residents
Certainly, this is the primary purpose of every volunteer trip. Volunteer tourism is an opportunity for you to visit places where people, despite facing hardships, are always generous and welcoming, where children, despite being born into poverty, are passionate about learning. You can contribute a small part of your effort to help repair houses, teach the little ones, and improve the economic conditions of the people by buying local handicrafts and products.
Aid Local Residents. Image: Long Quang Le
Not only that, volunteer tourism activities contribute positively to local economic development, mobilizing resources, materials from individuals, groups, and organizations to support the improvement of infrastructure, attract investment in the region's tourism, create jobs for the local people, and simultaneously alleviate the burden on the state budget.
2.4. Contribute to Environmental Conservation and Promote Local Cultural Values
By participating in volunteer tourism, you'll help the local community improve their quality of life, enhance cultural awareness, promote environmental protection, preserve the natural landscapes of the destinations, conserve biodiversity, and recognize your role in preserving natural and cultural values, contributing to the development of tourism and the local economy.
Contribute to Environmental Conservation. Image: Collected
3. Volunteer Tourism Destinations
In Vietnam, the model of volunteer tourism is utilized at various levels, ranging from bringing guests to remote areas to provide gifts for those in difficult circumstances, contributing funds to build schools for children, to programs and projects attracting volunteers to help teach English and various skills to students in mountainous regions.
3.1. Mù Cang Chải (Yên Bái)
You can participate in volunteer tourism projects and preserve the cultural values of the Mong Leng ethnic group in La Pan Tan – Mù Cang Chải, developing a community tourism model in this cultural village, promoting and preserving local traditional crafts.
Volunteer tourism in Mù Cang Chải. Image: V.E.O
Through practical support activities such as job skills training, non-formal education, promotion, and communication about community tourism at the local level, organizing experiential tourism programs, you will contribute to the most sustainable economic development for the residents here.
3.2. Lô Lô Chải (Hà Giang)
Lô Lô Chải is a village at the foot of the flagpole in Lũng Cú (Hà Giang) with 90% of the population belonging to the Lô Lô ethnic group and 10% belonging to the H’mông ethnic group. The rocky terrain makes it difficult for Lô Lô Chải to cultivate, and the remote geographical location hinders transportation and access to new things for the people here.
Volunteer tourism in Lô Lô Chải. Image: V.E.O
By participating in volunteer tourism in Lô Lô Chải, you will contribute to maintaining and preserving the cultural values of the Lô Lô Chải ethnic group through support activities, repairs, and the development of the Homestay tourism model called 'Nhà Trình Tường' – a beauty in the cultural values of the people in the northernmost region of the country.
3.3. Mai Châu
Volunteer tourism in Mai Châu aims to develop community tourism in the village, help nurture skills in tourism services, improve the infrastructure of homestays, build and develop local tourism experience products. You can also participate in organizing and maintaining community classes for children in the village. Additionally, spread awareness and carry out environmental protection activities to prevent the impact of tourism development on the local ecosystem.
Volunteer tourism in Mai Châu. Image: V.E.O
3.4. Cà Mau
Volunteer tourism in Cà Mau aims to support, promote community tourism, and protect the marine environment in Đất Mũi, Cà Mau. Here, you can experience a day as a fisherman with the people of Đất Mũi, thereby developing a community tourism model in this area, promoting and preserving local traditional crafts.
Volunteer tourism in Cà Mau. Image: V.E.O
3.5. Di Linh (Lâm Đồng)
The Di Linh Plateau (Lâm Đồng) possesses a simple yet captivating beauty that is hard to describe! This place has welcoming villages, warm-hearted people, cozy small houses, full of love along winding roads or amidst the mountainous bends.
Volunteer tourism in Di Linh allows you to participate in organizing community classes for skills development and English lessons for local children; contribute to building bookshelves in primary school classrooms; support road improvement activities; build educational activities for the preservation and promotion of the traditional culture of the Nộp ethnic group in Gia Bắc – Di Linh.
Volunteer tourism in Di Linh. Image: V.E.O
Volunteer trips are not just about enjoying the local beauty and savoring delicious dishes, but they also bring practical benefits to the community and society in those places. Let's start volunteer tourism journeys this summer!
