Volunteering holidays to South Africa, Nepal and St Lucia are proving increasingly popular with older travellers.
As recent research indicates that overseas travel is on the rise, especially among those taking career breaks, older travellers are being encouraged to take volunteering breaks where they can make use of their skills.
Volunteering trips have traditionally been seen as the preserve of the young, but now, more and more people in their later years are taking the opportunity to travel and help local communities at the same time.
Paul Green from Saga Holidays said that the skills gap in certain rural communities, such as those in South Africa and Nepal, can often be filled by older travellers who have a wealth of knowledge and experience behind them.
“What they [local communities] 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,” Mr Green explained.
Research released by InsureandGo earlier this week found that 2.7 million people between the ages of 35 and 54 have recently been, or intend to go, travelling soon.
Many of those surveyed cited redundancy or losing a job as a primary reason to travel abroad.
Written by Anthony Nicholson
