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Traveling for good

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By Michael G. Williams THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE Traditionally, vacations offer an escape from the bustle of life, a way of recharging and getting some quality personal time. But there’s been a shift from this more self-centered pleasure to a selfless concern that has created a whole new form of travel called “volunteer tourism.”

Volunteer tourism The nexus between a tourism activity and a volunteer experience, volunteer tourism gives travelers the opportunity to dive into a cause that is important to them while also working a little rest and relaxation into the equation.

“There is no hard-set definition saying that you volunteer for three days and do tourist-type things for two days,” says Kristin Lamoureux, director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “You have people who predominantly volunteer and include a little bit of vacation-type activities, and you have others who are mainly interested in a traditional vacation and include a half-day or day of volunteering.”

According to Lamoureux, this type of activity could range from working with groups like Habitat for Humanity and wildlife rescue missions to disaster relief efforts such as those for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Other nonprofit

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groups, and even some forprofits like Travelocity, are picking up on this.

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Foreign and domestic opportunities Organizations such as the Earthwatch Institute (www.earthwatchexpeditions.org), for instance, offer travelers the opportunity to experience Amazon riverboat explorations, expeditions to help save endangered leatherback turtles off of Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, and more domestic experiences like New York City wildlife preservation.Travelers can also take part in projects like the excavation of President James Madison’s Montpelier estate in Virginia.

Another group making headway in this area of travel is Biosphere Expeditions

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(biosphere-expeditions.org), a nonprofit organization geared toward bridging the gap between the scientific community and lay people who want to contribute to a specific cause. Focusing predominantly on wildlife preservation and research, Biosphere Expeditions takes travelers to some of the more exotic parts of the world to assist scientists in their field work.

“Right now we have nine projects that range from dive projects on coral reefs in Honduras to climate change studies with migratory birds in Spain,” says Erin McCloskey, operations manager for North America Biosphere Expeditions. “Without people taking part in these trips, this work wouldn’t be possible.”

Where the costs go While the price tag on one of these trips can be a few thousand dollars, McCloskey notes that only about one-third of the money goes to administrative overhead, with the rest serving as a charitable donation to the cause. And volunteers do a lot more than stand around watching.

They can assist scientists in the collection and entry of field data, conduct land surveys, and track animals and related prey species. “If you have the desire and the ability, you can come,” she says. “If you have any physical limitation, we adapt that to you. You can stay at the base camp and do data entry, do less intensive work, and pace yourself as you need.”

What’s more, expedition leaders can adapt many of these tasks to accommodate a surprisingly wide-ranging age group. According to McCloskey, Biosphere Expeditions imposes no age restrictions, with the oldest expedition member being 87.

Indeed, some travel experts believe that the baby boomer generation is one of the groups most poised to embark on these types of vacations. “Though they’ve retired from their jobs, they’re not ready to stop living,” Lamoureux says. “They want to do everything that they weren’t able to do while they were working, and they have a disposable income that allows them to give back.”

Travel with a purpose That seems to be the central appeal of volunteer tourism—the ability to give back and experience more than one normally would on a traditional vacation.

The numbers are showing that trips involving an allinclusive resort, your favorite novel, and a private beach are more frequently giving way to environmentally conscious travel plans with purposes extending beyond pure leisure.

For instance, well over a quarter of those who responded to Travelocity’s annual travel forecast poll said that they are likely to take a volunteer vacation in 2008, whether it be completely volunteer-based or a vacation extended to perform volunteer activities. In fact, the federal government is actually encouraging this type of activity through proposedbills like the Global Service Fellowship Program Act (S. 1464), which is intended to boost the number of volunteers traveling abroad by the year 2010.

“It’s that ‘travel with a purpose’ mentality that’s really on an upswing right now,” McCloskey says. “For a long time, people had the option of seeing the world, going home, and then maybe making a charitable donation to a specific cause, but they weren’t directly involved.

Now, they can actually be involved and learn, which is really rewarding.”

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12/03/2008 11:31