Social media 'helping to weed out rogue volunteering operators'

The rise of social media is helping reputable gap year volunteering organisations to increase their market share, it has been claimed.

Speaking to r:travel magazine, Andy Woods-Ballard, operations director at Global Vision International (GVI), explained it is now easier than ever for people to identify the best gap year projects and providers.

He said that, historically, there have been some "pretty bad" volunteer organisations, which offered few benefits to participants or the communities they were seeking to help.

But Mr Woods-Ballard said these rogue operators are gradually being squeezed out of the market, meaning volunteers can approach their gap year with greater confidence.

He claimed there was "a definite switch" two or three years ago, when social media, blogs and review websites became more important than pay-per-click advertising.

"This opened the way for those like us that had always focused on the programmes rather than pumping huge percentages into marketing," Mr Woods-Ballard added.

Reputable organisations such as GVI can build their market share by relying on positive feedback from participants, he noted.

GVI – a Year Out Group member – was recently named Best Volunteering Organisation 2011 at the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards.

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