Today, there are many companies that offer eco-minded or social-impact services, and Carnival, U.S. cruise company introduced a new product to the tourism market: a cruise that includes helping others. Eco-tourists will be engaged in volunteering activities and donating their labor to poor people. There are many underdeveloped regions and tourists will pay to get there and offer their helping hands.
Thus, the company will get a revenue from organizing a supply of workforce; however, its main aim is to make a positive impact on the global society and not maximizing its profits.
For example, tourists from the United States will pay for their cruise vacation to the Dominican Republic, where they will teach English, cultivate plants, build households, etc. Many people today do not just want to travel and rest, but to have a meaningful and socially-responsible experience that can also help to change the world.
At the same time, there is a risk that some tourists will not volunteer when they get to the place of destination. To minimize this risk, Carnival’s employees make sure to explain the details of such a cruise to the customers, and offer party ships to the people who are not interested in volunteering. In his article, Bachman (2015) mentioned that according to the estimates, there is about one million people in the United States potentially interested in having this kind of a vacation.
In addition, it is of the greatest importance for Carnival and other eco-tourism companies to ensure that the work of travelers is helpful as no contribution made by the tourists will make this kind of an activity pointless. All in all, eco-tourism becomes popular among many people, and thousands of tourists are ready to spend their vacations helping others.
References
Bachman, J. (n.d.). Take a Cruise, Save the World: Will Millennials Buy Social-Justice Tourism? Retrieved June 17, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-05/take-a-cruise-save-the-world-will-millennials-buy-social-justice-tourism-
