Purpose-Driven Travel

Travelers increasingly want to give back when they travel, according to the Tourism Cares “Good Travels” research conducted by Phocuswright, which found that 55 percent of travelers surveyed had volunteered services or donated money to a destination they had visited in the past two years.

People want to know that the money they spend traveling is helping the destinations they visit, according to Tourism Cares, and thus philanthropy has become an important aspect of tour programs.

That’s why The Travel Corporation entered into a partnership with ME to WE, a for-profit social enterprise that uses its revenues to develop local communities. The partnership creates a platform for coordination between the volunteer work of ME to WE and the company’s travel programs.

Travel Corporation Chairman Brett Tollman said that the company saw an opportunity to partner with ME to WE because an increasing number of travelers want to participate in immersive volunteer tourism and give back to support the communities where they have traveled and met the local inhabitants.

“Many of our travelers are open to experiencing meaningful travel with unforgettable, moving experiences,” said Tollman. “We are therefore very excited to be supporting ME to WE’s outstanding immersive volunteer trips, which we will help promote with our 10,000 team members across the globe and with the involvement of our loyal travel partners globally.”

All Travel Corporation brands, including Trafalgar, Contiki Holidays, Insight Vacations, Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection, Lion World Travel, African Travel, Inc. and Adventure World, as well as the company’s nonprofit charitable arm, the TreadRight Foundation, participate in the partnership. In addition to volunteer work, Travel Corporation tour operators will donate half of the net profits on the tour programs that are linked with the WE charity volunteer programs.

ME to WE grew out of the WE charity, founded by Canadian Craig Kielburger, who as a 12-year-old read a news story about a Pakistani child who had been sold into slavery at the age of four, escaped, spoke out about the conditions and then was killed at the age of 12.

When he read the story, young Kielburger decided he wanted to go to Asia to build a school to help create ways for people like the Pakistani boy. Unlike most 12-year-olds, Kielburger was actually able to make the trip he wished for as his parents helped organize a trip to Asia the following year.

“That trip changed my life. And it is the reason that 20 years later I am still doing what I do,” he said. “It started because of that trip. That’s why I am so passionate about how travel can change a life, and also why I’m so passionate about providing opportunities for others. Travel is the reason why I am here.”

ME to WE gives the Travel Corporation tour operators a reliable way to donate money to a proven cause. “What makes ME to WE Trips unique is that travelers have the opportunity to contribute to sustainable development work, which has a 20-year history of impact,” said Kielburger. “The WE Villages development program has been able to build more than 1,000 schools and school rooms in our partner communities, giving 200,000 children the opportunity to gain an education, and provided over 1 million people with access to clean water. Our immersive volunteer trips have been a huge part of making that happen.”

Kielburger added, “Traveling with ME to WE is more than a trip. It’s a way to ‘live WE’ – coming together to learn from one another and make the world a better place, because we are stronger together.”

Through the new partnership with ME to WE, Travel Corporation tour operators will coordinate their tours with volunteer programs set up by ME to WE as extensions to regular tours. The partnership started with tour programs to Kenya, the Ecuadorian Amazon and India. More will be added.

Volunteers on ME to WE trips stay in accommodations in the local communities where projects are underway. On the ME to WE Ecuador trip, participants will experience the Amazonian rainforest while staying in ME to WE’s Minga Lodge and working with the local community on a sustainable development project, while at the same time getting to know the locals and learning about the indigenous Kichwa culture, including a visit to the home of a local shaman.

On the ME to WE India trip, participants will stay at Aravalli Cottages and Tented Camp near the Aravalli Mountains in Rajasthan and will help with building classrooms and transporting water. They will have the chance to learn about local culture and such skills as making chapati bread.

On the Kenya trip, guests will stay at Bogani Cottages and Tented Camp in the Maasai Mara and will learn about the ways of the Maasai and Kispigis communities, including the beading craft, while they help build a school.

Kielburger prefers to call the programs “purpose-driven travel” as opposed to volunteer travel, because the ME to WE programs don’t involve just painting a wall at a school and then leaving.

“We work 365 days a year in these communities,” he said. “We have found we can lift a community in five years with patient development, five years of community mobilization based on our five pillars: education, water, health, food security and opportunity.”