What do travelers want from their travels these days?

Travel providers are seeing demand for the following:

A recent New York Times article on volunteerism raised the question whether voluntourism – travel and do good abroad – is “simply an act of of affluent tourism masquerading as community service?”

This skepticism is not new. Variations have been circulated by critics and cynics of voluntourism who say that if you truly have the desire to help, why not just volunteer at home, in your local communities.

From ChaCha, a service that answers questions, comes a great interactive infographic that gives you the scoop on voluntourism all in one page!

This simple chart provides history and perspective on the voluntourism market by answering the following questions:

Part of traveling responsibly is being cultural sensitive. As travelers tour a foreign country, we may inadvertently offend a local and never realized it! Popular gestures at home can have completely different meanings abroad.

Guest post from Christopher Hill of Hands Up Holidays on volunteer travelers’ expectations and challenges faced by travel operators.

Volunteer travelers’ expectations for their volunteer trips largely depend on who is volunteering. While there are ‘general’ expectations that are applicable to most, if not all volunteers, such as a sense of purpose and fulfillment…

Royal Carribean’s Oasis of the Seas has added a few new excursions for its Cozumel, Mexico cruise, including voluntourism. The cruise line’s “Voluntourism: The Mexican Red Cross Landscaping Project” offers an afternoon of volunteering with the Mexican Red Cross.

Are you overwhelmed by the number of apps hitting the market these days? Sure, many of them are nice to have. But do you really have the time to keep track of dozens of travel apps? We think these 20 travel apps are pretty useful and will make your life on the road easier. Best of all, 15 of these are free!