Abercrombie & Kent, one of the world’s leading luxury travel companies, is helping to combine travel with philanthropy, bringing "voluntourism" to a luxury level.
The company announced this week the launch of its new Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy website – www.akphilanthropy.org – that allows travelers to get involved with more than 50 voluntourism projects worldwide.
The trips often have mandatory donations of up to $1,200 included in the overall price – which range from $5,500 to $10,000 – but travelers are encouraged to make additional donations through the A&K Philanthropy website.
The trip offers include an 11-day East Africa Conservation Safari, a 12-day climb of Mount Kilimanjaro to help monitor the climate change on the mountain, a clean water project in Cambodia, and an 11-day trip to the Galapagos islands to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species publication – accompanied by author Randal Keynes, Darwin’s great-great-grandson.
A&K offers these trips through its network of international nonprofit partners, and 100 percent of the tax-deductible donations go directly to the chosen project.
"As travel increasingly becomes about the things money cannot buy – shared experiences and treasured memories – more and more of our guests want to make a personal connection and a positive contribution to the places they visit," said A&K vice chairman Jorie Butler Kent, who heads A&K Philanthropy. "We hope to use this new website to multiply the impact of what our guests have started."
The A&K Philanthropy initiative may increase the popularity of voluntourism among older adults, a trend that currently sees the most activity from younger generations – a recent study from the University of San Diego Extension found that two-thirds of high school students and half of college students considered going on volunteer vacations in the past year.
This is so great! I love the mandatory donation! I traveled solo for a year volunteering in 11 different countries at 11 different projects and now continue to travel as a volunteer always at least a month in each country. I teach classes on how to take a volountourism vacation, what to expect, where to go, how to adapt and anything else that will encourage people to give voluntourism a shot. I LOVE that A&K is promoting this. I am quite sure that when it is well done–really meant to help ..the outcome for the volunteer will be more than they could ever have dreamed of. If you need help finding worthy projects, let me know!
We’ve noticed that conservation travel is a hot new trend amongst wealthy travelers, especially in Costa Rica. Many well-to-do individuals incorporate giving back to the community in their daily lives, so it makes good sense that they would be interested in incorporating it into their leisure and travel as well. Buying luxurious green vacation homes (like the newly built Kalia community in Costa Rica) is another way that the upper class is making travel sustainable.