Editor's Note: In recent months, organizations have found creative ways to attract would-be adventure travelers through volunteer-style holidays, philanthropic travel options, creative add-ons to trips that provide unique "give back" opportunities - this positioning, as its communicated, to help to address perceived or real traveler concerns about taking a vacation during a challenging economic climate. For a possible follow-on round-up report, please tell us what your organization is doing/has done since the year's start and/or summarize what you're hearing from your clients and client prospects on this topic - deadline, April 23, 2009: email [email protected].
Peru: Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu tour to Benefit the Instituto Machu Picchu and Huanca Community School
STOWE, VERMONT ― At a time when many avid travelers are scaling back due to guilt brought on by the impression that adventure travel is indulgent and insensitive to others who may be struggling to get by, adventure tour operator Boundless Journeys’ annual charity event offers the ideal solution: incorporating meaningful community service into an amazing travel adventure.
Boundless Journeys is offering its August 2-9, 2009 Peru: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu trip as a special charity event to benefit the Instituto Machu Picchu (IMAPI; www.imapi.org.pe/english/index.htm) and a community school in the village of Huanca. This 2009 event follows the company’s successful 2008 event, a Tanzanian safari benefitting the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME; www.fameafrica.org). The 2008 charity event trip resulted in a donation of $6,000 to FAME and the participation of 10 Boundless Journeys clients in a well-child check at a Karatu, Tanzania orphanage.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Peru and its iconic archeological site, Machu Picchu. Peru is truly one of the world’s great travel destinations, but very few visitors actually get off the beaten path and truly connect with the people and places they are there to experience. As Karen Cleary, Peru Trip Manager for Boundless Journeys notes "It is part of Boundless Journeys' mission to plan an annual charity event trip as one aspect of our commitment to sustainable tourism. The Huanca community school is in need of renovation and restoration. Our donation to the project of approximately $4,900 USD, plus the time our guests will spend working, will allow the community to accomplish this important goal."
Along with the popular walking and hiking tour including important sites in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, Boundless Journeys guests who participate in the August 2-9 charity event will have the opportunity to:
• Spend a day working side by side with Huanca villagers, assisting electricians, carpenters, painters, and masons to complete the community school renovation project (no construction experience is necessary, just a desire to help out and a willingness to get a little dirt under your nails).
• Spend the night camping in the Huanca community, giving participants time to get to know the villagers better, and enjoying a traditional party to celebrate the completion of the project.
Group size is limited to 16, and reservations are currently being taken for Boundless Journeys' Peru: The Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu charity event. The August 2-9, 2009 trip cost is $4295 per person (not including international airfare).
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