South African orphanage.

Hands Up Holidays is a voluntourism specialist offering corporate trips which blend travel with a ‘taste of meaningful volunteering experiences’. The company can create bespoke incentive and team-building trips to 37 destinations worldwide.

Flexible itineraries

Itineraries can be flexible in duration and content and are developed in consultation with senior management and human resources, creating a volunteering-based trip that ‘achieves the goals of the company’. The travel company argues that overseas corporate volunteering projects are rewarding experiences for all involved, helping employees feel valued and improving staff morale and loyalty.

‘A strong CSR programme provides organisations with a strong moral backbone and, most of all, they help the communities visited with worthwhile projects such as house building, helping at orphanages and environmental conservation,’ a spokesperson told ModernSelling.com.

Sense of adventure

The company says its itineraries are suitable for anyone who has a sense of adventure and community spirit. It also claims that all carbon emissions from flights are offset and that it gives at least 10% of its profits back to its project partners for further community development.

Voluntourism: team-building and CSR.

The company is realistic about what can be achieved. Managing director and founder Christopher Hill acknowledged: ‘We know that our holidays won’t “change the world”, but that should not be an excuse for not trying, for not making a contribution. For many travellers, Hands Up Holidays will be their first taste of volunteering and we hope that it will not be their last.’

All trips are accompanied by a Hands Up Holidays tour leader, whilst a specialist team-building facilitator who helps the group get the most out of the experience, can also be arranged.

Sample itineraries

Morocco – four days including two-nights in a luxury riad in Marrakech. Time is spent exploring the souks, squares and general sightseeing, whilst two days are volunteering, building classrooms and staying with local families.

Hungary – five days that includes the stunning capital, Budapest, famous for its thermal spas and central Europe’s largest lake, Lake Balaton, with two days building a playground in Csakvar, a village to the west of Budapest.

Peru – eight days combining the capital Lima with the pretty colonial town of Cusco and the chance to visit the mesmerising Inca ruins at Machu Picchu. Three days are spent volunteering building a women’s empowerment workshop.

South Africa – six days of voluntourism luxury including Cape Town, Table Mountain, Cape Peninsula plus the famous winelands region with three days volunteering at an orphanage.

For more information please telephone 0800 783 3554.

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