The road worth taking, the life worth living, and the person worth being: Morality, authenticity and personhood in volunteer tourism and beyond

Abstract

This article explores what volunteer tourists designate as moral in the practice of volunteering. Findings from in-depth interviews demonstrate how this experience’s moral worth relates to notions of moral personhood, rather than to responsibility for others. This article argues that in late modernity middle class volunteer tourists see the moral worth of the practice as resting on its capacity as an outlet for expression and cultivation of one’s true self. This emphasis reflects a contemporary ‘ethics of authenticity’, wherein being true to yourself is a moral principle and a contributing factor to a full existence. The article explores the ways this moral principle appears in interviewees’ wide moral perceptions and highlights the role of volunteer tourism in materializing these perceptions. By adding the moral layer to the quest for authenticity via tourism the article provides an insight into the role of tourism in peoples’ moral lives.