ABSTRACT
Volunteer tourism is a novel and distinct aspect of contemporary leisure culture. The organisations involved were established or supported directly by government initiative and their establishment was linked to clear narratives of transformative economic development and national interest, narratives not at all evident in volunteer tourism today. The charge that they reflected distinctive western interests in the context of decolonisation and the Cold War has often been made. Radical critics have accused the US Peace Corps in particular of neocolonialism. An overview of the origins of the Peace Corps and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) respectively reveals their relationship to the politics of the day, and facilitates a comparison with contemporary volunteer tourism. This chapter highlights the distinctiveness of volunteer tourism and identify some key themes to be pursued. It also contrasted the shift from the modernisation as development approach that characterised the Peace Corps and VSO to the small scale and wellbeing emphasised by volunteer tourists today.
