Charitable Travel Fund launches to support tourism communities in need
Melanie May | 30 October 2020 | News
A fund aimed at supporting tourism communities in need around the world will launch on 1 November.
The Charitable Travel Fund will be administered through registered charity The Charitable Travel Foundation, with grants delivered to communities through local and international non-profit groups and charities.
The Charitable Travel Fund’s key objectives are preventing or relieving poverty, financial hardship, sickness, injury, disease and other suffering among tourism communities in need, and advancing vocational education and training to aid recovery or diversification.
At launch, the Charitable Travel Fund is supporting two projects through partner non-profits Tourism Cares and United Purpose. Tourism Cares is working in Cambodia, helping to support three hotels in Siem Reap providing 400 meals a day to those people most affected, while the United Purpose AFFA Women and Girls For the Future group with twenty-two other women’s groups of market gardeners in Guinea, West Africa, are working to protect and rebuild livelihoods following Covid-19 and diversify their customer base, which includes tourism hotels and resorts currently heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Funds will be raised through travel industry supporters who are asked to pledge a minimum of £1 per booked passenger, and donations from the travelling public. There will also be membership options for organisations, and the charity has created a “Proudly Supporting” logo for those helping to build the fund to display.
In addition, the Charitable Travel Fund is planning a series of fun fundraising activities throughout the year for the industry to get involved. There is also a one-off donation option available on The Charitable Travel Fund’s website, and profits from social enterprise travel agency Charitable Travel will also be donated to the fund, which is the first partner of the charity.
The Fund’s founding Trustees are Chris Lee, Melissa Tilling, Sue Papworth, Debbie Haw, Sarah Loftus, and Steve Thompson, with Lee as chair.
Chris Lee commented:
“Like most of us in the travel industry I have had the opportunity and privilege to enjoy the incredible destinations and experiences that tourism enables worldwide. This opportunity is made possible by the people in those destinations. Hotel workers, tour guides, waiters and chefs, transfer drivers and countless others ensure we have the holidays we look forward to each year. We owe these communities so much for enriching our lives and now we seek to help those people in these communities who need our help, when they need our help.”
“In places that substantially depend on tourism income for the wellbeing and livelihood of the people in the local economy, we want to help when tourism is impacted by events outside of their control.”
Advertisement
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.