ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some case studies which give us an insight into the complexities of the relations between youth travel, discourses of morality, and affective processes. Taking part in volunteer tourism places an onus on young people to become a 'better person', to develop 'gratitude' to return from their experience with a reformed superior 'perspective' on life. Instead of travelling to 'find themselves', implying a personal and unique journey, young people are now encouraged to travel ethically in order to construct a version of the self that fits a particular moral mould. The case studies also allow us to glimpse the defensive processes that are set in motion when volunteer tourists face uncomfortable situations or conflicts within the self. Deciphering the nature of moral transformations in young volunteer tourists may prove to be a problematic task as they appear to have a narrative basis, with an element of rhetorical inevitability at the same time as involving emotions and affective processes.
