IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/prodev/v14y2014i2p163-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medical voluntourism in Honduras: ‘Helping’ the poor?

Author

Listed:
  • Sharon McLennan

    (Development Studies, School of People, Environment & Planning, Massey University, New Zealand)

Abstract

Medical voluntourism, where health professionals travel to another country to provide medical services is a growing, but under-researched phenomenon. This article, based on qualitative research with medical voluntourists in Honduras, uses Scheyven’s (2001) continuum of voluntourism to explore the complexities of medical voluntourism. The research found that while ostensibly ‘helpful’, volunteer tourism in Honduras is often harmful, entrenching paternalism and inequitable relationships; and that many voluntourists are ignorant of the underlying power and privilege issues inherent in voluntourism. While there are examples of volunteer tourism as both educational and as a form of social action, the article argues that these are not natural consequences of voluntourism but must be nurtured. As such this article highlights some implications for practice, noting that addressing the paternalism inherent in much medical voluntourism requires an honest appraisal of the benefits and harm of voluntourism by sending and host organizations, education and consciousness-raising amongst volunteers, and long-term relationship building.

Suggested Citation

  • Sharon McLennan, 2014. "Medical voluntourism in Honduras: ‘Helping’ the poor?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(2), pages 163-179, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:14:y:2014:i:2:p:163-179
    DOI: 10.1177/1464993413517789
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464993413517789
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1464993413517789?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Burns & Jane Reid & Mark Toncar & Jeffrey Fawcett & Cynthia Anderson, 2006. "Motivations to volunteer: The role of altruism," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 3(2), pages 79-91, December.
    2. Tomazos, Kostas & Butler, Richard, 2012. "Volunteer tourists in the field: A question of balance?," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 177-187.
    3. Bob Rose, MD (retired), 2010. "Making Education History on the Internet," Nonpartisan Education Review, Nonpartisan Education Review, vol. 6(1), pages 1-3.
    4. Kate Simpson, 2004. "'Doing development': the gap year, volunteer-tourists and a popular practice of development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(5), pages 681-692.
    5. Lo, Ada S. & Lee, Candy Y.S., 2011. "Motivations and perceived value of volunteer tourists from Hong Kong," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 326-334.
    6. Chen, Li-Ju & Chen, Joseph S., 2011. "The motivations and expectations of international volunteer tourists: A case study of “Chinese Village Traditions”," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 435-442.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pan, Tze-Jen, 2012. "Motivations of volunteer overseas and what have we learned – The experience of Taiwanese students," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1493-1501.
    2. Thompson, Jamie & Taheri, Babak, 2020. "Capital deployment and exchange in volunteer tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Kristína Pompurová & Kristína Pompurová & Jana Sokolová & David Austin Cole & Radka Marčeková & Radoslav Kožiak, 2020. "Are visitors interested in volunteer tourism? Evidence from Slovakia," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 7(4), pages 3339-3353, June.
    4. Wearing, Stephen & McGehee, Nancy Gard, 2013. "Volunteer tourism: A review," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 120-130.
    5. Tomazos, Kostas & O'Gorman, Kevin & MacLaren, Andrew C, 2017. "From leisure to tourism: How BDSM demonstrates the transition of deviant pursuits to mainstream products," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 30-41.
    6. Li Jiang & Thomas Eck & Soyoung An, 2022. "A Study on the Effect of Emotional Solidarity on Memorable Tourism Experience and Destination Loyalty in Volunteer Tourism," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    7. Heesup Han & Myong Jae Lee & Wansoo Kim, 2018. "Antecedents of Green Loyalty in the Cruise Industry: Sustainable Development and Environmental Management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 323-335, March.
    8. Wu, Mao-Ying & Wall, Geoffrey & Pearce, Philip L., 2014. "Shopping experiences: International tourists in Beijing's Silk Market," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 96-106.
    9. Khan, Shahzar Ali & Khan, Verda & Khan, Mohd Asif, 2023. "Behavioural intention of tourists towards volunteer tourism: A developing country perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 37-47.
    10. Heesup Han & Antonio Ariza-Montes & Pilar Tirado-Valencia & Soyeun Lee, 2020. "Volunteering Attitude, Mental Well-Being, and Loyalty for the Non-Profit Religious Organization of Volunteer Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Wearing, Stephen & Beirman, David & Grabowski, Simone, 2020. "Engaging volunteer tourism in post-disaster recovery in Nepal," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Smaro Boura & Orestis Vathis & Asteris Huliaras & Nikolaos Tzifakis, 2022. "Do in‐kind donations promote cooperation among non‐governmental organisations? Lessons from the Greek refugee crisis," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 130-144, January.
    13. Pierluigi Diotaiuti & Stefania Mancone & Stefano Corrado, 2022. "Motivations and Personal Traits Can Predict Self-Efficacy of the Clown Therapist: A Descriptive Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Lo, Ada S. & Lee, Candy Y.S., 2011. "Motivations and perceived value of volunteer tourists from Hong Kong," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 326-334.
    15. Jörg Lindenmeier & Christian Arnold & Adnan Zogaj & Dieter K. Tscheulin, 2021. "Congruence constructs as mediators of stereotypic image perceptions’ effect on student volunteering intention," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 18(4), pages 575-597, December.
    16. Dan Yao & Ke Zhang & Lin Wang & Rob Law & Mu Zhang, 2020. "From Religious Belief to Intangible Cultural Heritage Tourism: A Case Study of Mazu Belief," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Ryu, Jay Sang & L'Espoir Decosta, J.N. Patrick & Andéhn, Mikael, 2016. "From branded exports to traveler imports: Building destination image on the factory floor in South Korea," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 298-309.
    18. Miho Fukui & Yasuo Ohe, 2020. "Assessing the role of social media in tourism recovery in tsunami-hit coastal areas in Tohoku, Japan," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(5), pages 776-791, August.
    19. Wong, Jimmy & Newton, Joshua D. & Newton, Fiona J., 2014. "Effects of power and individual-level cultural orientation on preferences for volunteer tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 132-140.
    20. Karim Khelifi, 2023. "Conceptualizing the determinants of tourism destination choice through perceived value [Conceptualisation des déterminants du choix d'une destination touristique par la valeur perçue]," Post-Print hal-04348660, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:prodev:v:14:y:2014:i:2:p:163-179. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.