Essay thesis essay is an expanded justification of a thesis statement that usually appears as an introduction to the research paper, essay, or study and is a vital part of any academic paper. A thesis essay presents the background of a thesis statement, its key idea, opinion, or argument. Therefore, incorporating the thesis statement, thesis essay gives a general understanding what the paper will be about. Essay thesis example is aimed to provide a justification of an idea that volunteer tourism is contributing to the development of global citizenship.
Volunteer Tourism in the Context of Global Citizenship
The overpopulation, ecological crisis, and global warming are only a few challenges of the today’s globalized world. The rise of the information technologies, which have blurred the boundaries between people, have made the world more interconnected, where the problems of the specific states are not their own anymore, they are viewed as global concerns. The rise of the global issues cause the important debates about the values, efficacies, and nature of the citizenship discussed in the contexts of transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and global citizenship. Therefore, the human sense of belonging, action, and responsibility should evolve to the global scale encouraging to address the issues of intolerance and ignorance that can be possible through of praising multiculturalism and diversity.
The concept of international volunteer tourism has emerged as a way to develop global citizenship among the young people in order to address the issues of intolerance and ignorance. Hence, most of the recent studies are concentrated on the positive impact tourism does through the development of cross-cultural understanding, breaking stereotypes, and increasing tolerance as attributes of global citizenship. As a result, volunteer tourism has become the largest movement of young people considered to be a vital driver of global citizenship development around the globe. However, at the same time, many studies regard the volunteer tourism as a controversial issue as it is driven by the individuals’ egoistic motivation that can be to see the world, to grow personally, or the need to make a contribution, which is more about the “self” rather than making a real difference to society. One of these studies even mentions that such willing to help others or self-develop as ego-focused tourism may even contribute to social inequality issues because most of such travelers are the citizens of wealthier, developed countries.
This study is aimed to add another perspective to the discussion. Although volunteer tourism is motivated by individual needs and interest, it significantly influences his/her personal development. For example, the gap year as a form of volunteer tourism provides with civic education, cultural awareness, community appreciation, as well as intellectual and psychological development. Furthermore, it plays an important role for society as among the directions of volunteer tourism are teaching children in different developed countries, addressing environmental issues, and promoting tolerance. Thus, taking into consideration the egoistic driver of volunteer tourism and its positive impact, we argue that the positive outcomes of the volunteer tourism are helping young people to broaden their individual world view, develop the values of global citizenship, and empower action oriented on society improvement.
References
- O’Shea, J. (2011). Delaying the Academy: A Gap Year Education. Teaching in Higher Education Vol. 16, No. 5, October 2011, 565-577
- Lyons, K., Hanley, J.m Wearing, S., and Neil, J. (2012). Gap Year Volunteer Tourism: Myths of Global Citizenship? Annals of Tourism of Tourism Research, 39(1), 361-378.
- Woosnam, K. M., & Lee, Y. J.(2011). Applying Social Distance to Voluntourism Research.
- Annals of Tourism Research, 38(1), 309–313.