Travel Philanthropy

Today's seminar to launch the new report on Advances in Travel Philanthropy at World Travel Market was standing room only and participants shared examples and raised concerns about what travel philanthropy contributes.

The report commissioned by WTM discusses the main issues and provides lots of examples of different forms of travel philanthropy – we identified �160,000,000 of donations over the last two or three years, but that is only a fragment of the total.

Travel Philanthropy is is about paying back, it is about making a contribution to the conservation of natural and
cultural heritage, putting something back in the place we love to visit, as tourists. For tour operators it is about recognising the importance of maintaining the place or making it a better place to live in or visit, for hotels and accommodation providers it is often about being good neighbours.

Goodwin H, McCombes L, Eckardt C (2009) Advances in Travel Philanthropy: raising money through the travel and tourism industry for charitable purposes  WTM ICRT Occasional Paper