We love writing these little blogs for our regular newsletters and it is our policy that they are never about us; always just about interesting but travel-related stories.
But this year has been such an exceptional one for Travel with a Cause that this blog is unabashedly self-congratulating.
Starting with our volunteer activities, our staff have worked on weekends to ensure hundreds of volunteers assist animal welfare, environmental control and related projects in our home state of Tasmania. This includes the eradication of noxious weeds from the habitat of some of the most threatened native species and working at charitable zoos to rehabilitate injured animals. We have also sent several volunteers overseas on medical, educational and infrastructure working holidays.
Travel with a Cause has been awarded the best travel agency in Hobart for the second time in a row. That is also probably a record. The award is from an independent American accreditation organisation called Best Three.
That is not our only international award. This year we were also awarded a free trip for a staff member to Bali by the Indonesian Tourism Department, to foster cultural exchange. In part that supplements our ongoing work in bringing groups of school students to Australia from overseas to participate in exchange programs.
Thanks to The Department of Education Tasmania and Honorable Will Hodgman Premier of Tasmania for donating their used computers to Villages of Life Travel With A Cause is proud to have been part of bringing these computers from Tasmania to children in Burundi, Africa. Villages of Life is a Non-Government Organisation dedicated to providing the essentials of life for the people of Burundi. For more information about the Villages of Life’s projects, please visit: www.villagesoflife.org
One exciting project we have accomplished this year has been the refurbishment of computers for delivery to schools in Africa. This has been the heartfelt passion of one of our directors, and it has meant our in-house technical skills allow us to recycle laptops, load them with freeware so that they are cheap and functional and ship them to needing classes in poor African countries.
Of course, we would be unable to undertake all of these activities without funds, and in regard to our business, this has also been a record year. Travel with a Cause has always been on the front foot of technology change in the travel industry, the first agency to have its private web and internet presence, the first to focus on emerging social media as things like Facebook and LinkedIn arrived. Experts in social media marketing, WeChat capturing explosive opportunities with Asian visitors. We have consistently been awarded one of Google’s highest ratings in relation to our online presence in search engines and communication systems.
TWAC is also a proud member of the elite Travellers Choice network which has just been named Australia’s Best Agency Group at the prestigious 2019 National Travel Industry Awards (NTIA).
Our corporate activities have expanded like crazy in 2019, with relationships developed with universities, sports clubs, religious organisations, radio stations, prominent companies and government departments. It has meant a revamp of the dedicated page on our website.
We hire and train dozens of recruits, interns, volunteers and full-time staff each year, contributing to the availability of experienced and valuable talent to the industry. Our permanent staff average of 4 years with us and our company turns 30 next year.
So we wish everyone a very happy Christmas and holiday season, a fantastic New Year, and invite you to visit us whenever you pass by, for a coffee, or a chat about what we do or what you want to do.
WHAT a good year!
Jane, Mark, Amber, Jazz, Alex, Annie, Allan, Richard...
Our volunteers & interns: Senya, Connie, Lux, Abby, Shine (and congrats of having her newborn baby Philex last week), Hemanta, Saurav, Jina, Emma, Liv ,Danu, Khan, Monica, Sandy, Echo, Lee.... our volunteer day's participants, and many more that brought out the best positive energy of 2019. We look forward to seeing what's coming in 2020, to whoever will create more happy memories with TWAC.