New York Times - Feb 2005

More Vacationers Answer the Call to Help

By AMY GUNDERSON

For his winter vacation a year ago, Jude Fournier relaxed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and his biggest activity of the day was moving between his hotel room and the beach. Recently, Mr. Fournier was getting ready for another trip, but this time his biggest concern wasn't whether to bring an extra swimsuit. Malaria pills, a first-aid kit and nonperishable snacks were on his packing list as he prepared for a day-and-a-half journey to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to assist with the tsunami clean-up.

"I want to do more than write a check," said Mr. Fournier, a 47-year-old high school teacher in Santa Fe, N.M., who started looking for volunteer opportunities to Southeast Asia two days after the tsunami hit on Dec. 26.

Volunteer vacations are not new, but the tsunami brought even more attention to this growing area of the travel industry that attracts tourists looking to forgo the usual in favor of a more intense cultural experience.

Cross-Cultural Solutions, (800) 380-4777 and www.crossculturalsolutions.org, a nonprofit based in New Rochelle, N.Y., attracted 50 percent more volunteers last year than in 2003. It has expanded to 10 countries and added one-week trips to Costa Rica and Brazil to its roster of excursions that otherwise last 2 to 12 weeks.

Many organizations offering these trips are nonprofit groups and say that trip fees are tax deductible. But for the trips to qualify as tax deductible, the group must be an approved charitable organization in the United States and the trip can't include too much playtime.

Mark Luscombe, the principal federal tax analyst at CCH, a provider of tax-law information, said the trip had to be for charitable purposes and not have a significant vacation aspect. "The air fare can also be deductible," he said, "but probably not a first- or business-class ticket."

While college students and recent graduates still make up about half the travelers on volunteer trips, the Cross-Cultural Solutions spokeswoman Kam Santos said the trips are drawing more diverse groups.

"We see a lot of empty-nesters and seniors on trips," she said. "We get lot of seasoned travelers. They've done the tourist thing and this is something different."

But different doesn't necessarily mean roughing it. Travelers on Cross-Cultural Solutions' trips typically stay with other volunteers in a house or other base in middle-class neighborhoods, Ms. Santos said. Volunteers in Salvador, Brazil, for example, stay in a house that is within walking distance to shops, the beach and a salon that gives hourlong massages for $8. Fees for two-week programs run $2,279, and include lodging, local transportation and all meals, but not air fare.