Volunteering 'increases in popularity among older travellers'
Wednesday, October 21, 2009The number of older imaginative explorers making use of their experience and skills by taking volunteering holiday tours has dramatically grown, according to Saga.
Reacting to the announcement that InsureandGo has witnessed a 23 per cent rise in long-stay travel insurance being taken out by people aged over-35 since 2008, Saga's spokesperson Paul Green believes that an influx of volunteer travellers to locations like South Africa, Nepal and St Lucia has impacted on these figures.
With the need for voluntary workers increasing in the third world, there are more and more skilled older people heading directly into deprived local communities to make a difference and try to change people's lives, he explained.
He said: What [third world countries] lack are people with engineering skills, people who might have been nurses or teachers who can share their skills, knowledge and life experience and make a difference."
A survey released by Saga at the end of August demonstrated that 45 per cent of travelling over-50s wanted to get physical and mental refreshment out of their trips, while 32 per cent wanted to discover new cultures.
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