Voluntourism: Vacationers go the extra mile to do good

By Kimi Yoshino, Times Staff Writer
03:29 PM PST, March 07, 2007

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Blame Angelina and Brad and their do-gooding, orphanage-visiting ways. Or maybe it's all the hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes.

Whatever the reason, more tourists — such as college students on spring break, jet-setting luxury travelers and retiring baby boomers — are using their vacations to volunteer.

In the latest example of the growth of "voluntourism," United Way, one of the nation's oldest and largest community service organizations, and CheapTickets.com will unveil a website today to link travelers with volunteer work.

"You always had some college kids who go with their church ministry and they build roofs somewhere, but now it's really something where the industry has taken notice," said Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Assn. of America. "It's come a long way from the idea that it's all crunchy-granola people."

Recent surveys by online travel company Orbitz, competitor Travelocity and the travel industry group all show increasing interest in volunteer vacations. An even stronger indicator of the interest, Keefe said, is that more travel agencies and tour companies are offering specific volunteer opportunities. In some cases, people can add a day to their trips to focus on a specific cause.

The website doesn't require visitors to book a vacation with CheapTickets or donate to United Way — but both options are a click away. Still, the site is mostly a way to link tourists with United Way's 1,300 local chapters by logging on to CheapTickets.com, said Randy Punley, United Way's director of corporate partnerships.

After travelers decide on their destinations, they can go to http://volunteer.cheaptickets.com to pick the specific location for their volunteer work and then select their particular social issue, such as homelessness, domestic violence and drug abuse.

To attract the travelers who might be interested in mixing a good time with good deeds, Punley said, "we're on MTV, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube."

Last year, about 100 college students volunteered in Biloxi, Miss., and Foley, Ala., as part of United Way's inaugural Alternative Spring Break program. This month, more than 300 18-to-24-year-olds — more than 40% of them repeat volunteers — will head to Louisiana for more post-hurricane relief work.

Baltimore resident Brian Pham, 21, saw one of United Way's ads on MTV last spring and ended up in Biloxi, roofing and framing homes for hurricane victims still stuck in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In June, he went on a vacation to New York, where he donated time at a day-care center, a home for the elderly and a women's shelter. Now, he's in Louisiana for a month as one of United Way's project managers.

"I don't even know what words to describe it. Fulfillment, I guess," said Pham, who took time off from his family's real estate company to volunteer. "You just feel like you're doing so much to save the world."

And it's not just young idealists helping out. Richard Degnan, a senior executive for Williams-Sonoma Inc., took a four-week jaunt to Africa last year. On his trip, the 40-year-old San Francisco resident visited four countries and took two high-priced safaris. He also spent two days at three orphanages, where he played with children and dropped off suitcases full of clothes. It just didn't seem right, he said, to go to Africa and not do any volunteer work.

"I know this is going to sound a bit silly, but to be honest, I think it's because of people like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie," said Degnan, referring to the celebrity couple's globe-hopping visits to orphanages and refugee camps. "They've glamorized it."

The orphanages were not what he expected. They were clean and the kids seemed happy and well cared for. But the children were still needy.

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