The Jacobs Media Group, organiser of the Global Travel Marketplace, has announced the Charitable Travel Fund as the event’s charity partner.
The Global Travel Marketplace will offer a dedicated platform for leisure travel communities at the Royal Leonardo Hotel St Paul’s, London (September 27-29).
The Charitable Travel Fund, administered through the Charitable Travel Foundation, already supports tourism projects in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and the west African country of Guinea. It has just announced two new initiatives, which will help causes in Ukraine and Sri Lanka.
Melissa Tilling, trustee at the Charitable Travel Foundation, said the partnership with the Global Travel Marketplace comes at an “important time”, as the new initiatives have just been launched.
“Our charity, which was founded to support tourism communities in need around the world, is seemingly a perfect cause to champion at such a prestigious and innovative travel and tourism event,” she said. “We are delighted to be chosen.”
More: Global Travel Marketplace premiere attracts dozens of industry figures
New charitable fund to help global communities reliant on tourism
The charity depends on donations from people and companies in the UK travel and tourism industry, whether that is a pledge of £1 per passenger booked or more.
Delegates at The Global Travel Marketplace can donate to the charity in the Charitable Travel Experience Corner.
Their donations will help support the new project in Ukraine, where an estimated 90,000 Ukrainians are refugees in their own country because of the Russian invasion.
The Charitable Travel Fund, in collaboration with the National Tourism Organisation of Ukraine, will help groups of these refugees to visit The Odessa Literary Museum and Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre – supporting those venues, the staff and guides, and providing a programme of activities and snacks for the visitors.
Donations will also help the new project in Sri Lanka, which supports self-employed drivers in national parks, whose livelihood depends on tourists who have been absent amid the political turmoil.
The Charitable Travel Fund was launched in October 2020 to support communities that rely on tourism and are in need of financial aid.
Tilling said: “Covid-19 showed the world once more the fragility of communities that depend on tourism.
“But our charity is not simply for the impact of a pandemic; we are here to support when other incidents damage the wellbeing of communities that depend on tourism.”
For more details about the charity, click here.