Agent Insights: Travel Agent Groups Show Their Charitable Side

by Robin Amster
Last updated: 5:30 PM ET, Thu January 14, 2016

Travel is a people business, and travel agent groups continue to show their deep concern for people-often in under-the-radar fashion-with their support of a wide variety of charitable organizations and causes.

One of the most recent examples is Vacation.com's Family Bonds Foundation. Introduced last March at the group's annual conference, the foundation each year awards funds to a small group of families from its membership or their local communities for help with medical bills, daycare, school supplies and other basic necessities.

The group has now announced it is giving back to the people of Paris in the wake of the recent terror attacks by donating a portion of the $40,000 it has raised through the Foundation to Secure Populaire Francais, a French relief agency.

Other agent groups and consortia are no less active on the charitable front.

Some examples: both the Ensemble Travel Group and CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. support the Make-A-Wish Foundation; CruiseOne's Operation Vetrepreneur awards free CruiseOne franchises to military veterans, and the American Marketing Group (parent company of TRAVELSAVERS, NEST and the Affluent Traveler Collection), raises money for Autism Speaks.

Cruise Planners' CP Cares supports causes ranging from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to Forgotten Soldiers Outreach. Signature Travel Network's Michelle Morgan Memorial Fund, in honor of its former president, is part of the Renaissance Charitable Foundation, committed to charitable organizations aimed at leukemia and other cancers.

And the MAST Travel Network, on every All Star trip for its top producers, makes a donation to a cause related to the trip's host and destination. In 2015, it took part in a Walk for the Cure, which tied into the Hyatt Regency Maui's annual Paddle for the Cure supporting the Susan G Komen Foundation in Hawaii.

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