Jenn Hair

The first time I came to New Orleans was with a group of thirty or so college students in March 2006, the spring after Hurricane Katrina. We came to volunteer through Common Ground Relief with the goal of contributing to the forces of recovery that were at work in the city. By day we gutted houses, but at night, as we were young and in New Orleans, we explored the city’s nightlife. This confluence of volunteerism and tourism has since been dubbed “voluntourism,” and according to Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu, has had a major impact on the city’s recovery through both the volunteer work and the tourism money that has funneled into the city as a result. The notion of coming to New Orleans for volunteer work and play has become highly popular, with the city visitors bureau website directly linking to “voluntourism” information on their homepage and local corporate event planners integrating volunteer connections into their offered services.

Now I find myself back in the city not as a volunteer but as a journalist exploring the role of voluntourism in the New Orleans economy. I used the first day of my visit to conduct an interview with the managing partner of a planning company, Shelley Rote of Signature Destination Management. They offer team-building programs that include single days of volunteer work for visiting corporate groups. However, Ms. Rote noted that they hadn’t had a request for such a service for nearly six months up until yesterday, when they had a group looking for a small service opportunity. Her perception of this downward trend was that it coincided with the outbreak of the global recession. In particular, corporate travel expenses may have been curbed if they seemed distasteful in light of recent visible excesses of Wall Street firms like AIG. On the other hand, adding volunteerism to corporate travel agendas can have the affect of legitimizing a company’s motives for business trips to New Orleans.

Tomorrow is Make a Difference Day, an event founded by USA Weekend magazine to promote a national day of service. Luckily our trip falls on this date, and I will have the opportunity to go to a local event to photograph and interview some volunteers. I’m hoping to meet some out-of-towners who have come here for the purpose of volunteering as well as enjoying the city, both of which are activities that can help further the revitalization of New Orleans.

LINKS
Common Ground Relief: http://commongroundrelief.org/

Lt.Gov. Mitch Andrieu:
http://blog.nola.com/tpmoney/2009/01/landrieu_advocates_master_plan.html

New Orleans Visitor Bureau: http://www.neworleanscvb.com/

Signature Desitnation Management: http://www.signature-dmc.com/

AIG on the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15AIG.html

Nat’l Make a Difference Day: http://www.usaweekend.com/diffday/aboutmadd.html