Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

Big Question

Is service based tourism

sustainable?

Overall Expectations

C1: Impacts of Travel and

Tourism: assess impact of
tourism and different modes
of travel from a geographical
perspective.


C3.  Stewardship and the Service Based Tourism
Sustainability of Societies:
assess social and cultural In this lesson students will be introduced to service based
impacts of tourism

on tourist destinations, and
tourism, sometimes called voluntourism. This lesson will be
explain the role of good centred around an activity that will have students critically
stewardship practices in examine existing opportunities that exist around the world for
supporting the social and gap year students.
cultural sustainability of
destination communities
Today we will learn… Success Criteria
Specific Expectations

• What opportunities I can: Research an

C1.2: assess the impacts of
tourism, both positive and
negative on cultural
resources
C3.1: Explain how tourism
• What are potential
can affect the social stability
and cultural sustainability of
tourists destinations.


exist there for service international volunteer
based tourism  
 opportunity and find critical
information about it
flaws of volunteer I can: Present a argument in
based tourism 
 favour of a volunteer
opportunity
I can: Assess others
arguments to judge value

30
 Minds on:  Motivational Hook / Engagement /
Introduction

Teacher Does:
Key Words Hook (5-10 min)
• Review photos of areas that are in distress (teacher use discretion
Voluntourism
when choosing photos, make them relevant to current events or course
Service Learning

Materials
Variety of pictures for the
minds on activity
Laptops, or other devices for
students to do research on


Chart paper if students need to
help their presentations
focus)
• Make sure that the photos show diverse situations and have human
subjects in them as well as Natural disasters, civic unrest, poor living
conditions, etc.
• Lead the class in discussion about each photos
• What do you notice about these photos?
• What caused the events leading to these photos?
• Have students think- pair - share, or discuss in small groups the last
two questions    
• What are the economic, social, political, environmental,
considerations/impacts of the subject of these photos?
• What can be done to help with these issues?

The role play activity will be the next portion of the class, students will
need to be broken into groups no larger than 3.

Assessment for Learning: Presentation Observation sheet

Performance, Oral

Action:  During /Working on It

See attached “Young Traveler's Dilemma” sheet for the role play activity

Consolidation & Connection

• Lead class in de-brief to consolidate learning from the activity,

• What did you notice about all of the organizations, similarities/ differences?
• Do you feel that the efforts of these groups meat the sustainability criteria set out
by our class?
• Is this an organization you could see yourself working with?
• Do you see any problems with voluntourism?
31
 Young Traveler's dilemma
Young Traveler or Y.T. for short, has just graduated high school but isn’t ready for
university yet. Y.T. lead the model U.N. and was the president of the environmental club.
They are a hard worker with a passion for helping people. Y.T. also has a deep passion for
the environment. During Y.T.’s gap year they would like to travel but also help out where
they can, this could mean many things and Y.T. needs your help. What they are having
trouble with is deciding who they would like to help, where they would like to do it, and
how they will go about fulfilling their goal of being of service to their fellow person.

Luckily it just so happens that there are several experts in the room this very
moment. This means you class! Today we will be helping Y.T. with their dilemma.

What you will do is select an organization that helps connect passionate people
like Y.T. with people or places in need around the world. You will pick an organization to
represent, do your research, and present to Y.T. why they should choose your organization.

Here is a list of Y.T.’s questions they will want answered How will I be helping
people during my time with your organization?

1. How will I be helping people?

2. How will I be helping the environment during my time with the organization?
3. What happens to the people I am helping after I am done?
4. Why can I offer that locals cannot?
5. Is your organization sustainable?
6. How expensive is it?
7. Where does the money go?
8. Who will I be helping?
9. How do I go about signing up/ applying?

List of possible organizations: Any organization is ok, here are some suggestions.

1. WWOOF international, connects people with hosts on organic farms.

2. GOECO, connects people with a variety of hosts
3. Red cross, a wide variety of paid and volunteer opportunities
4. Gooverseas, specializes in gap year programs
5. United Planet, specializes in gap year programs
6. volunteerforever, variety of volunteer programs


32
Here is how the activity will work:

· On a laptop or other device students will have 35 minutes to research their

organization and prepare a maximum 5-minute presentation, get creative, anything goes.

· Students will present their cases to Y.T. (the teacher)

· After hearing everyone else’s presentations, the groups will have two minutes to form
a rebuttal of sorts to address anything they missed or to present any new information they
have thought of while listening to the other presentations

· After the rebuttal period Y.T. will gauge who presented the best case and answered all
of the questions most completely. Alternatively students may vote on which presentation
they feel is the best/ most informative

· Follow this activity up with a debrief, Questions are located in the lesson plan


33