Responsible Tourism as Strategy for Implementing Transformative Education for Global Citizenship

Abstract

This contribution investigates the educational implications of responsible tourism with a view to promoting transformative education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship. After a brief overview of the theoretical and historical framework of the notion of transformative education in relation to Global Citizenship Education and education for Sustainable Development, this paper highlights the contribution of responsible tourism as an informal education practice. Some examples of transnational educational tourism for Global Citizenship Education are then provided and analysed. Particular attention is paid to the case of international volunteer tourism (also defined as “voluntourism”), highlighting its opportunities and limitations. The conclusion describes some of the pedagogic preconditions that help educational tourism to contribute to learning global citizenship, depending on the type of education, tourism and global citizenship activated in designing educational tourism programmes.