Medical volunteers as accidental tourists: humanitarianism and the European refugee crisis

ABSTRACT

This article sheds light on the scarcely mentioned term ‘accidental tourists’ which refers to individuals who travel overseas for other purposes than leisure seeking, and actually engage in recreational and tourist activities after their arrival at the destination. In this regard, this exploratory study examines the experiences of medical volunteers as accidental tourists who provided primary healthcare assistance to refugees hosted in the Vial refugee camp in Chios Island, Greece, during the European refugee crisis. Primary data were collected with the use of in-depth interviews and non-participant observation. The interview questions focused on medical volunteers’ tourist and recreational activities undertaken in Chios Island, as well as on their perceptions of the political aspects of humanitarian aid. The findings of this study indicate that medical professionals as accidental tourists placed emphasis on the stressful working environment, and tourism was merely a welcome side-effect. Additionally, the concept of accidental tourism is further elaborated regarding the theoretical implications of this study. Practical implications as well as policy recommendations for refugees’ individual autonomy are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• European refugee crisis
• accidental tourism
• medical volunteering
• humanitarianism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pavlos Paraskevaidis

Pavlos Paraskevaidis, MSc (Hellenic Open University, 2007) is an educator at the Directorate of Secondary Education of Chios, Greece, and his research interests include tourism development and sociology of tourism.

Konstantinos Andriotis

Konstantinos Andriotis is a Professor in Tourism at Middlesex University London. He holds a PhD in Tourism Development and Planning (Bournemouth University, 2000) and a Post Doc in Tourism Marketing (Hellenic Open University, 2006). He edits the International Journal of Tourism Policy, the Journal of Qualitative Research in Tourism and the CABI Regional Tourism Series. His research interests include tourism development and planning, tourism experience and degrowth.