About
Our Volunteering Program
When seeking alternatives to strengthen sustainability and address the challenges faced by World Heritage tourism destinations—such as our own Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu—we realized that the solution is not to restrict the visitor flows generated by the site’s unique value, but to diversify the surrounding geographic area where this remarkable resource is located. Inevitably, by virtue of its status, it has become an important tourism product.
We explored alternatives within the new concepts of tourism and heritage relations, as well as modern travel typologies: Creative Tourism, Rural Tourism, Community-Based Tourism, Experiential Tourism, Immersion Tourism, and Voluntourism. It is within this framework that we chose to focus on voluntourism, as it naturally integrates all the above-mentioned approaches.
We clearly understand that the main difference between voluntourism and traditional volunteering lies in motivation and project structure. Voluntourism combines travel with volunteer work, often emphasizing the volunteer’s experience and coordinated by intermediary organizations. Traditional volunteering, on the other hand, can refer to any type of unpaid work in a local community, regardless of whether it is part of a trip.
Tour operators and travel agencies that choose voluntourism act as intermediaries between volunteers and local communities, offering tourism packages that include volunteer projects and activities alongside leisure travel, all aligned with the central purpose of the trip.
Volunteering in Peru, the land of the Inca civilization, and especially in Cusco—the capital of Inca culture—is a privilege. This valuable and historic society stands on par with the greatest civilizations of humanity.
Our projects take place exclusively in the Cusco Region, one of the most important regions in Peru’s tourism sector. It is essential to develop activities that bridge the gaps between modernity, heritage, and development, benefiting the communities that are heirs to this significant historical tradition.
Visitors from other countries often observe our society and its rich history as if looking into a display case. The experience of living alongside the descendants of this marvelous Inca tradition is unforgettable, yielding benefits for both visitors and hosts through genuine cultural exchange. All our projects are framed within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015.
Today’s traveler seeks more than just visiting a place—they want to live it and feel it to the fullest. This is why tour operators are updating their services and creating new ways of engaging and offering unique, personalized experiences for travelers.
In these times of climate change, and particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector has undergone a strong shift towards “the experience” as the main factor in consumer choice over other travel elements.
According to TripAdvisor’s “Travel in 2022”, about three-quarters of travelers wish to visit new places, live new experiences, and learn about the history, culture, and ways of life of the destinations they visit.
No single provider or operator can offer all that is needed to meet these expectations. To achieve this, we must move beyond traditional alliances among tour operators, adapt to local realities, and establish broader networks of options. Over recent years, numerous personal initiatives, NGOs, associations, and international entities have worked to connect with local populations, offering travelers the chance to experience first-hand the work done to support local communities. These trips, usually undertaken during vacation periods, have come to be known as voluntourism.