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Every year, Family Travel Forum (FTF) hosts a teen travel writing scholarship asking young travelers to blog about their most important vacation experiences. Follow up surveys and data analysis indicate that community service and mission trips are a growing trend among young travelers.
According to the analysis, trips with the primary purpose of helping others have increased year over year since FTF began its scholarship, rising from 7.5% in 2007 to 10% in 2008 and 12% in 2009, certainly a reflection of teens’ growing awareness of global poverty.
In 2009, the 5,700 travel blogs submitted to the scholarship contest indicated that teens have a keen interest in Middle Eastern politics and poverty issues in Africa. Also, according to the judges’ reports, the essays reflected greater concern over the state of the world and its people.
With these insights, FTF started MissionHolidays.Blogspot.com, a blog dedicated to helping teens and young adults find service opportunities through travel volunteerism, charitable work, and community assistance programs. The mission is to get the word out about what service trips are really like, which organizations are offering trips, and to encourage everyone to help others through community service.
Mission Holidays also hopes to educate travelers about good work and service that can be done in countries all over the world, as well as in your own neighborhood.
Additionally, the blog features many of the essays submitted by young travelers in the travelBIGO community. Through this writing, there is a unique opportunity to encourage and raise awareness about service trips for teens.
Another way to promote teen service trips is with the Mission Holidays brochure, an easy-to-download PDF that features one volunteer vacation essay. The brochure will be available free of charge, for distribution to teens across the country.
Family Travel Forum plans to publish Mission Holidays brochures monthly, with editions tailored to the needs of specific organizations. All interested groups should get in touch with the FTF office to discuss their needs.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
