Paying for proximity: touching the moral economy of ecological voluntourism

I met John in 2013 on a volunteer conservation tour to Montague Island,

New South Wales, Australia. John, like many visitors to Montague Island

described the location as a ‘wilderness’. Working in collaboration with

National Parks of New South Wales, I was working as part of a team project

exploring the social transformations brought about by volunteer nature

tourism. Within the three years of this project, from 2010–2013, we have

had the chance to observe and talk to voluntourists, who pay around $580

each to participate in a 3-day itinerary on the island. Through open and semi-

structured interviews with participants on the island, and follow-up interviews

after their trip, we developed a richer understanding of volunteer tourism in

the flow of life. Having observed nature voluntourist practices we became

particularly interested in the role of touch in how people engage with sets of

ideas about nature and nature conservation on Montague Island. John was not

the only voluntourist who felt the need to touch in the moment of encounter

with penguins. This chapter explores touch as a mechanism to disclose the

moral compass of voluntourists in places were human touch is unwanted (see

Figure 13.1).