Delighted to be involved in establishing a major new NFP venture which seeks to unite UK travel brands and the public to make 10,000 ‘holidays for helpers’ accessible to essential workers.
The new initiative which will give essential workers all over the UK access to a range of bespoke, discounted holidays and experiences at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as see a fund of public donations to buy holidays for key workers set up, is being launched by a group of UK travel industry professionals.
Operating under the name ‘Give Them A Break’, the group aims to build an industry-wide collaboration to make 10,000 holidays and attraction experiences available, and is calling on travel brands to get involved ahead of a launch to the public in May.
Give Them A Break enables travel brands get involved in two ways:
● The Give Them A Break discounts and offers holiday directory When it officially launches, the Give Them A Break website will directory of those brands and industry partners who have agreed to make an exclusive selection of discounted holidays and experiences available for essential workers. Each ‘partner’ will have a clickable module, which will then take them directly to the brands’ websites, ideally landing on a dedicated page, where the details of the holidays on offer are given, and from there, into the brands’ existing booking flow. Abercrombie & Kent, Alpharooms, Elegant Holidays, Intrepid Travel, Sanctuary Retreats, The Nation Unites (the visitor attractions scheme for NHS workers), Teletext Holidays, Transindus, Travelbag, Travel Republic and USAirtours have already signed up to appear on this ‘partner’ page.
● The Give Them A Break holiday fund
The second section of the Give Them A Break website will be a public-facing fund to which companies and individuals are invited to donate whatever they can afford. The monies raised will be managed by the campaign’s charity partner, the Family Holiday Association, who will work with Give Them A Break to allocate holidays to essential workers and their families when travel restrictions ease.
The travel industry has been quick off the mark and several schemes have been launched offering holidays, hotels stays and experiences to NHS staff and other key workers. Give Them A Break is in touch with several of the schemes that have launched and those still in development. Rather than duplicating the efforts of others, it aims to pull things together in one public facing campaign. Anyone who is interested can reach the team at hello@givethemabreak.org. The Give Them A Break campaign is the brainchild of sustainable tourism expert, Rachel McCaffery. She comments: “It is so beautiful to see the nation pull together in solidarity and show that we are all there to support our NHS and key workers. Top attractions and venues across the UK are opening their doors for free to the NHS as part of the ‘Give Them A Break’ initiative”, said one of the event organisers, and founder of The Nation Unites, Emma-Jane Nutbrown.