The purpose of the Web App would be to allow users to search, research and book a “socially conscious travel adventure”. What is a “socially conscious travel adventure”? Many socially conscious travellers choose to spend their vacation volunteering in developing countries. In addition they want to ensure that money that they are spending stays in the local community. This includes going to locally owned restaurants, staying in small hotels or Airbnbs or staying with locals. When travellers help keep money in the community, local residents become empowered.
Socially conscious travellers look for opportunities for “voluntourism”, not with high volume multinational tour companies but with volunteer organizations that have a proven track record in matching volunteers to much needed projects. One example of this is the group Habitat for Humanity that matches volunteers with those countries in dire need of housing much like the work that Habitat for Humanity did in Haiti a few years back.
In short, this project will collect user information and match the user to a number of options for volunteer travel. In addition the user would be presented with local maps formatted to provide the lowest carbon footprint for the tourism part of their trip - (hiking maps, walking maps, biking maps). Because of the locale of some of the destinations this site would provide safety travel advisories, links to local news sites, lists of community events happening during one’s stay and lists of locally supported shopping and tourism adventures.