Your business: Giving travellers a chance to help out

Staff from British software retailer Softcat travelled to Cmabodia with Hands Up Hoildays. Photo / Supplied

Voluntourism is a hot trend in the travel industry. Lying on the beach in a developing country staying in five-star luxury and ignoring the surrounding poverty is no longer palatable for many of today's Generation Y or X professionals.

They want to be making a difference while holidaying, helping communities change for the better.

Former banker, Christopher Hill, founder of Hands Up Holidays, is carving out a niche in the travel industry which takes holidaymakers to places they wouldn't normally be adventurous enough to go to.

He finds destinations that have a tourist appeal and identifies projects requested by the community that visitors can help with.

When the entrepreneur started looking into it as a business in 2003, no one was offering a combination of sight-seeing and giving back.

"It appealed to young professionals who were cash-rich and time-poor," said Hill. People, in fact, like himself.

He began the business in New Zealand in February 2006.

Hands Up Holidays looks after individuals and families holidaying, people taking career breaks, and - the fastest growing part of the enterprise - businesses looking to offer staff incentive travel.

Hill takes company groups to places like Mexico, Guatemala, Uganda and Cambodia for team-building exercises.

"These are socially responsible, intuitive, ethically responsible incentive trips," he said.

While last year's turnover was $2 million, Hill expects it to be twice that this year as the corporate side grows in Britain and America.

The travel entrepreneur has developed strong relationships with charity partners.

He has worked with Tear Fund from the early days and more recently with Save the Children and World Vision.

"The Save the Children trips are more philanthropic trips, rather than hands-on volunteering trips, for existing donors or new donors to go out and see what is going on - it's a sizeable new area for us."

Hill has found an increasing number of people have got involved in specific skilled assistance.

"The project partners have made specific requests for volunteers, for instance orthopaedic specialists and people with database skills and physiotherapy qualifications, along with more general skills like teaching English."

Although he started the business from New Zealand, Hill is now operating from Britain and recently opened a United States office. America is already the biggest market for his consumer part of the business and has the potential to be the same for the corporate side.

The travel expert recently accompanied 37 staff from British software retailer Softcat to Cambodia and Vietnam.

They helped at a school near Siem Reap where they made a US$20,000 donation for materials.

"What communities need more than foreign labour is cash to finance substantial projects such as schools, libraries, orphanages, and so on, so donations are a pre-requisite," said Hill.

"Seventy-four per cent of the Softcat participants said this was their best-ever holiday." The company wants to do a socially responsible trip with Hands Up Holidays every two years.

For a 10-day corporate trip, participants pay about US$5000 ($6500) a head including donation.

HANDS UP HOLIDAYS

* Founded by former banker Christopher Hill.
* Offers socially responsible holidays and corporate breaks.
* Started in New Zealand in 2006.
* Now run from Britain.
* Last year's turnover was $2 million.