| For the fifth consecutive year, The Travel Corporation and TreadRight, The Travel Corporation’s sustainable tourism foundation, have partnered with Tourism Cares, a non-profit organization founded by the tourism industry. Their mission is to preserve and enrich the travel experience for future generations. This year, they brought 40 of their brand employees to Yosemite National Park to volunteer with the National Park Service and assist with native vegetation conservation.Volunteers worked on a combination of two projects in Yosemite Valley. The first was to remove the invasive non-native species of bull thistle in approximately three acres of Cook’s meadow. Bull thistle and other non-native plants are a threat to the biodiversity of plant species and their removal is a priority project, typically performed by hand. Penstemon seeds were also collected to aid in the future rehabilitation of natural plant habitats in and around Park facilities and accommodation complexes. Yosemite National Park depends on the contribution of volunteers, annually deploying nearly 10,000 visitors and visiting groups to help in similar vegetation and rehabilitation projects.”With nearly 10,000 volunteers annually, the benefits of volunteerism at Yosemite abound,” said Molly Downer, Yosemite Group Leader. “They are reflected in our diverse and beautiful meadows that are surveyed every year for invasive plants by volunteer groups. They are reflected in the fire-rings and campgrounds that are regularly cleaned out by volunteer groups. You would be hard pressed to find a corner of Yosemite not touched by the spirit of volunteerism.”
As part of their Tourism Cares membership benefits, The Travel Corporation has worked with Tourism Cares for a number of years on private corporate label events. More than 100 of their brand employees have come together to volunteer, providing 4,000 hours and nearly $85,000 in volunteer labor to both Grand Canyon National Park and now Yosemite National Park.
“It is a pleasure to work with an organization like The Travel Corporation, who shares our deep passion for giving back,” said Mike Rea, CEO of Tourism Cares. “They pass this passion along to their employees who roll up their sleeves and work to enrich the treasured destinations their customers visit every day.”
About Tourism Cares
Tourism Cares, Inc. is a 501(c)3 nonprofit public charity that benefits society by preserving the travel experience for future generations by awarding grants to natural, cultural and historic sites worldwide; by focusing on workforce development through student programs which provide support from classroom to career; and by organizing volunteer efforts to restore tourism-related sites in need of care and rejuvenation. For additional information or to contribute to Tourism Cares, visit www.TourismCares.org.
About The Travel Corporation
The Travel Corporation is a highly successful, family-run international travel group with 27 award-winning brands which include luxury hotels and boutique river cruise ships, niche guided vacations, and other leisure interests. The Travel Corporation’s award-winning brands include Trafalgar, Contiki,Brendan Vacations, Insight Vacations, Lion World Travel, African Travel, Inc., The Red Carnation Hotel Collection, and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection. The Travel Corporation’s guiding principle is one of providing the most enjoyable, enriching travel experience for its customers across the globe. For more information, please visit www.TheTravelCorporation.com.
About The TreadRight Foundation
Created as a joint initiative between The Travel Corporation’s family of brands, The TreadRight Foundation is a not-for-profit working to ensure the environment and communities we visit remain vibrant for generations to come. To date, TreadRight has donated more than USD $2.5 million to sustainable tourism projects worldwide. The Foundation’s guiding principle is to encourage sustainable tourism development through conservation, leadership and support for communities. Foundation priorities are set by the Steering Committee, which includes sustainability leaders like Céline Cousteau and Costas Christ.
TreadRight’s past project partners include WWF, Conservation International and The National Trust in the UK. Current initiatives include sponsoring the National Geographic Society’s inaugural “World Legacy Awards,” and inspiring wildlife advocates like Terri Irwin.
To learn more about our past and current work at TreadRight, please visit us at TreadRight.org. |
