Holidays With Heart

ALENEY DE WINTEr explores the emerging trend of philanthrotourism and the simple steps we can take to raise a new generation of responsible travellers.

“Mummy, why aren’t you helping?” pleads my eight-year-old son as we pass a child begging in a quiet corner of Siem Reap, confused and concerned as to why his usually charitable parents appear to be turning their backs on a clearly needy child. It’s a good question and one that deserves a good answer.

We explain to our son that it’s natural when we see a hungry child to want to help, but handing over a couple of dollars only helps us to alleviate our own discomfort and can be one of the most harmful things we can do for a child in the longer term. In fact, the authorities in countries like Cambodia go as far as to request that people avoid giving hand-outs to kids because it encourages them – and their parents – to believe that begging is a more lucrative option than going to school, setting them up for an even more difficult future.

When my son asks what we can do to help, we head straight to the Angkor Hospital for Children, where my husband and I donate blood, demonstrating positive action through useful aid to our children. Still, my son’s compassion is fired up and when his birthday falls a few weeks later, he requests that instead of buying presents, his friends donate to a Cambodian children’s charity that will use the money on projects that help kids out of the cycle of poverty they’re trapped in. Everyone is richer for it.

It is through acts as simple and as small as these that we have begun introducing our children to the concept of Philanthrotourism.

Professor Sue Beeton, PhD and second vice president of Travel & Tourism Research Association explains, “Philanthrotourism is the idea of using our resources and skills to put something back into the communities we visit in a responsible, sustainable and ethical way. It is about looking outward to see how we can make someone else feel good, not about what makes us feel good.”