Ten years on since the Labour government abolished museum charges
Oliver Kamm, writing in today?s Times, describes the policy as economic idiocy.
The case for the importance of museums as part of our ?common culture? is well
made he argues, we subsidise the English National Opera and the Royal
Shakespeare Company but we do expect them to give away free tickets. If we did expect
that ?their revenues would collapse and their theatres would be unable to cope
with demand?. Kamm argues that that is what is happening in our museums.

The museums have not benefitted from the rise in the numbers
of visitors who have to be managed and the wear and tear they cause has to be repaired
? that costs money.

Kamm argues that allowing free entry to foreign tourists,
one third of visitors to national museums, makes no sense. Why subsidise their
holidays? ?This country?s cultural inheritance will be diminished the longer
that this misconceived policy remains.?

Why should our museums be free to foreign tourists? It is a good question.

Working overseas as a volunteer, voluntourism, continues to
grow as more people seek the experience of helping others abroad. People
volunteer for lots of different reasons, most of them altruistic. Well
organised and with the right safeguards in place volunteering is a good thing.
But volunteering is complex ? it can have unintended consequences and can be
abused.

There is good reason to be concerned about some of the
potential negative impacts of volunteering ? these two papers from the first
edition of Progress in Responsible Tourism address some of those challenges
from the perspective of an originating market organiser of volunteering
opportunities abroad and from a destination perspective. We share Harold
Goodwin?s concern about both the unintended consequences of volunteering and
the abuses which it can facilitate. We need to demand more Responsible
Volunteering.

Goodfellow Publishing has made these two journal articles
freely available as our contribution to an important campaign. Good intentions
are not enough. Volunteers and organisers of volunteering need to consider
carefully the consequences of their activity and to guard against exploitation
by the careless and the unscrupulous alike.

Read what Michael Horton and Sallie Grayson had to say about
child trafficking in the first edition of Progress in Responsible Tourism

If you have examples of irresponsible volunteering post them on www.irresponsibletourism.info

Read about, and join, the Think Twice Campaign