What's your first priority when traveling?
After selecting your perfect resort, booking excursions you've been dying to try, and making sure you can bask in the glory of tropical indolence — with the help of a piña colada — you'll discover a common thread: you.
Of course, there's no judgement here. After all, you're shelling out serious cash for a bit of time in paradise, so why not make sure the accommodations are to your liking?
But what if you can buy a plane ticket and give back?
There is a way to book that much-needed respite from reality and support a cause you care about while doing so. Both Wander.io and Visit.org serve as the perfect ways for curing your wanderlust and supporting something important.
Wander.io is a new hotel booking website that launched in early 2017 and allows a portion of the company's proceeds to go toward a cause of the traveler's choosing — something of interest to the adventurous 20-something.
"We've found that millennials are a very socially conscious generation — and willing to put their money behind causes they believe in," Clementina Oliveras, founder of Wander, said. "One day it hit me that I should combine my passion for travel and helping others and find a way to support socially responsible travel. That was the day Wander was born."
There are over 250,000 hotels to choose from and 47,000 destinations at Wander.io. Once a traveler books his or her destination, then it's time to choose what cause he or she can throw support behind. Options range from environmental, humanitarian, and developmental causes. Wander donates part of the booking fee to the partner charity at no extra cost to the traveler.
"Tourism is an industry that takes so much from the local communities and nature, but we need to make sure we're giving back as well," Oliveras said.
Visit.org just launched a new feature in April that allows travelers to "easily find and support causes they care about while traveling, from local culture to the environment to human rights," according to the site's business development and communications manager, Lola Méndez.
There is a new interactive map that allows visitors to choose a location and a cause that interests them.
"The travel for a cause map makes it easier for any traveler to partake in responsible tourism. If you are seeking out localized, ethical and transformative experiences, then Visit.org is a resource that will change the way you travel," Méndez said.
So before you head to your frequently visited travel sites, take a look at how you can see new places and support something that you're passionate about — that's definitely a new way to see the world.
