Carnegie Faculty School of Events, Tourism & Hospitality Research Project The impact of orphanage tourism on residential care centres in Cambodia: a qualitative research. 2013/14 Joni Verstraete Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc in Responsible Tourism Management Leeds Metropolitan University May 2014 1 Acknowledgements First of all, I owe special words of gratitude to Dr. Davina Stanford for being a supportive supervisor. I am very grateful for her great guidance and suggestions for this study. I am also thankful to Janet Cochrane for meeting me in Vietnam to talk about the research. I would like to show my gratitude to all those people who gave their time and contributed to the fieldwork for this report. I am heartily thankful to my husband, friends and parents who have always believed in me. All these people, in different ways, made completion of this report possible. Finally I want to dedicate this research to all the children in residential care centres in Cambodia who have inspired me to start this research and will forever have a special place in my heart. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 2 Executive summary......................................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables.................................................................................................................................. 6 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 6 1.0 Introduction & Background...................................................................................................... 7 1.1. Contextual setting.................................................................................................................... 7 1.2. Rationale.................................................................................................................................. 9 1.3. Aim and Objectives.................................................................................................................10 2.0. Literature review................................................................................................................... 11 2.1. Volunteer Tourism ................................................................................................................ 11 2.1.1.. Introduction........................................................................................................................ 11 2.1.2.. Volunteering ..................................................................................................................... 11 2.1.3. Voluntourism...................................................................................................................... 12 2.1.4. Voluntourism Industry Development................................................................................. 14 2.1.5. Volunteer motivations ....................................................................................................... 15 2.1.6. Volunteering impacts.......................................................................................................... 16 2.2. Orphanage Tourism.............................................................................................................. .20 2.2.1. Introduction........................................................................................................................ 20 2.2.2 Impacts of Orphanage Tourism........................................................................................... 21 2.2.3. International and national laws and policies....................................................................... 28 3.0. Research Methodology ......................................................................................................... 30 3.1. Qualitative Research ............................................................................................................. 30 3.2. Research Methods ................................................................................................................. 30 3.3. In depth semi-structured interviews....................................................................................... 31 3.4. Sample structure..................................................................................................................... 32 3.5 Interview structure ................................................................................................................. 34 3.6 Analyses.................................................................................................................................. 35 3.7. Research integrity and ethics................................................................................................. 35 3.7.1. Integrity............................................................................................................................... 35 3.7.2. Ethics................................................................................................................................... 36 3.7.3. Limitations...........................................................................................................................36 4.0. Main findings ........................................................................................................................ 37 4.1. The residential care centers: an introduction ........................................................................ 38 4.2. The role of the volunteers...................................................................................................... 39 4.3.Impacts of orphanage tourism ............................................................................................... 39 4.3.1. Impacts of volunteers......................................................................................................... 39 4.3.1.1 Impacts on the organisation.............................................................................................. 39 4.3.1.2 Impacts on the children’s education ................................................................................ 45 4.3.1.3 Impacts on the children’s psychological and emotional wellbeing.................................. 48 4.3.1.4. Impacts on the staff ..........................................................................................................50 4.3.1.5. Impacts on the community .............................................................................................. 50 4.3.2. Visitors impacts...................................................................................................................51 4.3.2.1. Impacts on the organisation..............................................................................................52 4.3.2.2 Impacts on the children`s psychological and emotional wellbeing.................................. 52 3 4.3.3 Attitudes towards media coverage of orphanage tourism.................................................... 53 4.3.4. Attitudes towards changes in national and international laws on orphanages and orphanage tourism...........................................................................................................................................54 5.0. Discussion...............................................................................................................................56 6.0. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................60 7.0. Recommendations...................................................................................................................62 Bibliografie....................................................................................................................................64 Appendix 1: ConCERT Responsible Volunteering guidelines..................................................... 78 Appendix 2: Criteria checklist.......................................................................................................81 Appendix 3: Online announcement...............................................................................................82 Appendix 4: Interview outline.......................................................................................................83 Appendix 5: Ethics Forms.............................................................................................................88 Appendix 6: Consent form...........................................................................................................105 4 Executive summary: Volunteer tourism is growing form of travel where volunteering on holiday is combined with leisure. The growing popularity of international volunteering (voluntourism) has led to the trend of orphanage tourism. While visiting a foreign country people take time to volunteer or visit an orphanage. While the literature on volunteer tourism is growing and mainly focuses on the volunteer and to a lesser extent on the host communities, the literature on orphanage tourism is limited. Although there is little research on the subject, It has been suggested by media and NGO`s that many issues arise with orphanage tourism. Although here have been reports about other countries, the media largely focuses