Voluntourism is a growing travel sector and with it comes the pros and cons of volunteering abroad. For the volunteer, it can be a travel and learning experience, a new way of seeing the world while giving back, but for the local communities it may be disruptive, intrusive to local cultures and traditions or its benefits short lived. How effective and sustainable are voluntourism programs? About Martin Stevenson: Originally from Cambridge, England, Martin Stevenson is a journalist, freelance travel writer, and founder and editor-in-chief of sustainable travel website More Than Footprints. Following a war of attrition between several gap-years spent travelling in Asia and his degree in South Asian Studies and Comparative Religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Martin worked in financial public relations in London and taught MBA courses at ESSEC business school in Paris. He has spent the last three years in Southeast Asia researching and writing ‘More than footprints? – How backpacking lost its way’. He is currently based in Kuala Lumpur.