Orphanage tourism is where tourist interactions with 'orphaned' children are central to traveller itineraries and experience making in less-developed contexts. While appealing to the desire of tourists and volunteers to 'do good' while travelling, underlining orphanage tourism is the fact that the vast majority of children (over 80%) in orphanages and allied care institutions are not orphans. Instead, children are often placed in institutions due to poverty and hardship, and as victims of human trafficking. In some cases, orphanages can be for-profit enterprises, where the commodification of good intentions begins and becomes embedded in the tourism supply chain. Children are becoming tourist attractions and the focus of tourist consumption, leading to orphanages as sites of tourism production and consumption. The first of its kind, this book highlights exploratory research that examines the links between modern slavery practices and orphanage tourism. Contributors include academics and practitioners with a long engagement in advocacy for the rights and protection of children and research into sustainable and responsible tourism. Written in an accessible manner that appeals to a broad audience. This book will appeal to researchers interested in the areas of tourism, human geography, development studies, childhood studies, law and social justice, as well as those interested in responsible and sustainable travel. Practitioners, policy makers and civil society groups working at the vanguard of tourism expansion and communities in less-developed contexts - particularly where labour rights transgressions, human exploitation and trafficking are prevalent - will also find the book insightful. Royalties from the sales of this book will be donated to Save the Children Australia and the Forget Me Not Foundation.

The tourism business is one of the largest industries in the world, and the two-billion-dollar volunteer and service-based travel market has been identified as the future of tourism. "Voluntourism," or the combination of volunteer service and tourism, is valorized by governments, NGO’s, travelers, and the thousands of non- and for-profits that facilitate trips, as the best of what tourism can be. Despite the accolades, the very same flaws rampant in early voluntourism, including xenophobia, racism, paternalism, colonialist attitudes, and a ‘west knows best’ mentality, are pervasive. Framed as a service experience, an alternative spring break, or a religious mission trip, this "moral economy" isn't all that successful. What well-meaning Americans and others are doing by going away to give back is unintentionally, but actively, hurting developing economies and damaging communities. Ours to Explore: Privilege, Power, and the Paradox of Voluntourism investigates voluntourism’s past and present, uncovering the complicated roots of the modern global phenomenon from the eighteenth century through today. Pippa Biddle offers an alternative to the voluntourism farce, presenting a plan for how the service based travel industry can break the cycle of exploitation to create more equitable travel experiences, and suggests strategies for travelers who want to actually improve the places they visit. Ours to Explore covers new ground by offering a fascinating look into the human impulse towards charity and provides the necessary context for why it is backfiring.