Lesbian Travel Companies Give Back

Vacations used to be all about fun and relaxation. The newest lesbian travel service, however, aims to combine that with social and environmental awareness — and seems to be having an impact on other lesbian travel services as well.

Sweet, created in 2008, offers “voluntourism” vacations where guests have the option of spending some time helping in local communities. In 2009, for example, Sweet offered a pre-departure, three-day land package for guests to work with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. They report that some guests on their trips, inspired by their vacation volunteering, have gone home and continued efforts on their own. All of Sweet’s vacations are carbon neutral, too — they buy carbon credits to offset the pollution created by their travel.

Earlier this year, Sweet also launched an initiative to organize community service and fundraising projects across the U.S., such as gathering food and clothing to give to a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Orlando, Florida, and collecting office supplies for public schools in Denver, Colorado.

I have never traveled with Sweet myself. I went on two lesbian cruises with Olivia Travel a few years back, before Sweet even existed. The venerable Olivia grew out of a women’s music company founded over 35 years ago and has long been the dominant force in lesbian travel. My spouse and I had a great time — and we don’t think of ourselves as “cruise people,” preferring independent, make-your-own-itinerary vacations. But 1,800 lesbians on a boat was too much to pass up, and we’re glad we didn’t.

I was surprised, though, when I received an e-mail from Olivia the other day, touting many ways Olivia has given back to the communities through which they travel. Olivia’s Amazing Amazon Riverboat Cruise guests in February brought school supplies to the children in the Amazon. A group of Olivia guests during a Western Caribbean Cruise in March collected nearly $5,000 in food, supplies and cash for a children’s orphanage and day care center in Honduras. Olivia has donated birding supplies to Seri Indian women in the northern part of the Sea of Cortez to help with their conservation efforts in their community. They also teamed with the mostly men’s gay travel companies Atlantis and RSVP to create the LGBT Haiti Relief Fund. They raised over $150,000 for Haiti Relief, one of the largest donations from a single entity.

Olivia has never been apathetic about charitable work. In 2008, just before Sweet launched, Olivia announced its “Cruise for Our Cause,” with an auction to benefit breast cancer research and various informational sessions through the week. Olivia (like Sweet) is also a frequent supporter of LGBT organizations.

Still, I have never before received any communication from Olivia about their local assistance efforts, although I have gotten many e-mails and letters from them since my trips several years ago. Most of their efforts in non-U.S. communities seem new — and the marketing of them definitely is.

That’s not a criticism. It is a good competitive move, as long as their efforts are sincere and genuinely helpful. If it means that more lesbian travel companies (and perhaps travel companies in general) are taking steps to give back to the world around them, that’s even better.

Sure, it’s nice to have fun and relax on vacation, and both Sweet and Olivia offer plenty of that, too. I’d like to think, though, it’s even more relaxing when one knows one is making the world a better place along the way.

Photo credit: Dana Rudolph