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Industry raises £250,000 to support people of Nepal
Juliet Dennis
The travel industry rallied to raise more than £250,000 in fewer than three days to help the people of Nepal following Saturday’s earthquake. The 7.9-magnitude quake near
Pokhara resulted in the deaths of more than 4,300 people, with 8,000 injured, as Travel Weekly went to press. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has advised against all but essential travel to Nepal, as international rescue teams flew into the capital Kathmandu. The disaster sparked an immediate response from the travel industry. Trailfinders alone donated £100,000. Chairman Mike Gooley said the firm was “deeply saddened”. “Trailfinders began operating tours to Kathmandu in 1970 and has a close and abiding connection with Nepal and its people,” he said. Travel Counsellors donated £20,000 to children’s charity Plan International, which has worked in Nepal for three decades. G Adventures and Intrepid Travel also launched appeals.
Both operators accounted for all their clients and staff. As of Tuesday, Intrepid, which had 168 travellers in Nepal, including 24 Brits, had raised £108,220 worldwide through The Intrepid Foundation. Just over half was raised through the trade, customers and staff, which the company matched. UK managing
director Michael Edwards said: “At times like this, you realise how good agents and operators are at responding to situations of this sort.” G Adventures, which had 156 travellers and 15 guides in the region, had raised £44,496 within 72 hours. If it reaches its CAD100,000 (£54,284) target, it has pledged a further CAD25,000 to support the recovery of affected communities via its non-profit organisation Planeterra.
Managing director EMEA
Brian Young said: “We have a responsibility to support these people and communities.”
3 Juliet Dennis
When Travel Counsellor Tim Fitzgerald received a text message at 8.44am on Saturday from one of his clients in Nepal, he knew he was in for a busy weekend. The agent had booked flights and accommodation for eight out of the 10-strong group of experienced climbers on a trip to Mount Everest on behalf of the British Exploring Society. They were planning to get into the Guinness World Book of Records by hosting the world’s highest black-tie dinner party and raise £100,000 for Community Action Nepal. Disaster had already struck days earlier, when one of the group was evacuated to Kathmandu suffering from a pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs). “I had booked a flight back on Saturday evening but the text said an earthquake had struck and it had gone crazy,” recalled Fitzgerald. While he spent hours trying to find out if and when his client’s flight was going ahead, Fitzgerald’s fears grew about his remaining clients.
“They were at the Advanced Base Camp. The longer we
didn’t hear anything, the more worried we were,” he admitted. Finally, on Tuesday, Fitzgerald got a call from client Neil Laughton, an explorer and entrepreneur, from base camp. “They were all fine.” he said. “They originally got there by flying to Beijing and taking the train. They came back the same way.” Other Brits stranded on Mount Everest included Alex Staniforth, 19, a speaker at the Abta Lifeline dinner last year. He was airlifted to safety. The 19-year-old mountaineer was on his second attempt to reach the summit. Most tour operators have cancelled tours to the region until May 11, offering customers refunds or the chance to delay their travel.
30 April 2015 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 5
Tim Fitzgerald
Agent receives text from client stranded on Everest
“At times like this, you realise
how good agents and operators are”
PICTURE: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
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