Most tourists come to Hawai?i on vacation for rest and relaxation, but there’s a popular trend in visitors coming to Hawai?i to volunteer their time and labor. HPR’s Ku?uwehi Hiraishi steps into the world of volunteer tourism or “voluntourism.”
20-year-old Tom Johnstone spent a day in Hawai?i on the beach in Kailua. Instead of surfing or snorkeling, he’s sifting sand for microplastics.
“I didn’t realize how bad the whole plastic situation was here and from doing all this you can just see how much there is, and last week when I came here it’s the same amount if not more,” says Johnstone.
Johnstone is visiting from Dunedin, New Zealand. He is part of a group of tourists in Sustainable Coastlines Hawai?i’s Voluntourism Program. It’s an opportunity for Hawai?i visitors to engage in a range of volunteer activities aimed at coastal conservation.
“I’ve always been really passionate about the ocean. I do a little bit of surfing,” says Johnstone, “Yeah, I just wanted to do my part and help the environment I guess. Just do what I can to help.”
“Everybody uses plastic,” says Katie Ziemann, the International Volunteer Coordinator for Sustainable Coastlines Hawai?i.
“All of our personal hygiene products, our food packaging, our toothbrushes are all made of plastic. And a lot of it doesn’t end up in landfills,” says Ziemann, “It ends up in our oceans and it’s washing up on our beaches.”
Sustainable Coastlines Hawai’i is known for tackling marine debris and plastic pollution through beach clean-ups. Ziemann says tourism was an untapped labor market and that’s not all.
“It’s showing people who aren’t from here the issue so that they can go back home and share what they’ve learned,” says Ziemann.
Joanne Tusello is visiting from Ontario, Canada.
“We at home are re-use, recycle and all that. But her saying is ‘refuse,’ like start at the top and don’t even buy this stuff,” says Tusello, “So it makes a lot of sense. It’s something I hope to take home with me.”
Voluntourism is a growing trend in the global visitor industry. International Volunteer Headquarters is a New Zealand-based travel organization connecting tourists with volunteer opportunities in over 40 destinations, including Hawai’i. The organization says over the past decade more than 80,000 travelers have volunteered on more than 200 projects.
“I volunteered in Bali. I helped rebuild school houses for the children,” says Tusello, “And I liked this one because it was doing something with the ocean. I wanted to come and meet some of the actual people that live on the island and are doing something about what’s going on here.”
The week-long program also includes a beach clean-up at James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge and a visit to Sustainable Coastlines Hawai?i’s plastics sorting facility. Volunteers also work on restoring the He?eia fishpond and farming the taro patches with non-profits K?ko?o ??iwi and Papahanakuaola.
“I think something that visitors really value about this is being connected with the local community,” says Ziemann, “Get out of their comfort zones by getting in the lo?i (taro patch) and getting muddy because they are so inspired by these local people who it means so much to.”
As tourism in Hawai’i continues to grow, voluntourism allows the state’s estimated 8.9 million annual tourists to reinvest in the very thing that brought them here in the first place.
