Help us help local communities, says charity
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Daily Telegraph 1 November 2003 Millions of British holidaymakers will soon be asked to contribute to a charity to help limit the environmental impact of tourism and assist local communities.
Launched this week with £200,000 of funding from the Foreign Office, The Travel Foundation has the backing of more than 40 travel companies, Government bodies and travel industry associations. Most of Britain's biggest tour operators, including First Choice, Thomson and Thomas Cook, have agreed to support the charity and to ask holidaymakers to contribute.
From next month, First Choice will ask customers to donate 10p (adults) and 5p (children) per booking, advertising the move in its brochures. Sunvil Holidays will ask customers for 50p per booking and donate the same amount itself.
TUI, which owns Thomson, said it intends to make a guaranteed annual donation. From January, Thomas Cook will encourage its customers to donate their leftover foreign currency. It, too, will make an annual donation.
The Travel Foundation aims to raise £1 million a year by 2006. It was initiated by the FO at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development last year and has been described by Tony Blair as "a world-leading initiative which will enable British travellers to make a difference to millions of lives across the globe".
In a partnership involving the Government, travel companies, non-governmental organisations and local people, a number of policies and training programmes will be put in place with the aim of boosting local economies and protecting the natural environment and local culture. Initiatives will range from helping farmers to supply fresh local produce to resorts (rather than importing it from overseas), to advising hotels on better waste and energy management to keep beaches and seas clean and preserve resources.
Specific projects already underway include helping local craftsmen, guides and fruit sellers in the Gambia to benefit from tourism, and the introduction of day trips to less well-known and declining rural villages in Cyprus - a destination visited by a million Britons each year.
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