What impact will the coronavirus have on tourism in 2020? Some predict the effects will be felt globally, into 2021. The Coronavirus’s Effect on Tourism Will Carry Into 2021, Experts Say And it won’t just affect China, either. By Nikki EksteinFebruary 13, 2020Blookberg Coronavirus May Affect Tourism Into 2021 Earlier this week, even as infections of the novel coronavirus seemed to be slowing, the effects of the epidemic on the global tourism industry were accelerating rapidly. The impact of the pneumonia-like disease caused by the virus, called Covid-19, is already being felt across the Asian continent, where leisure and business travel contributed $884 billion to gross domestic product in 2017, the most recent year for which data has been compiled by the World Travel and…

Recent events in the Middle East have put travelers on edge. Here are some tips on staying safe if you plan on travelling to the region in the near future.   ‘Maintain a high level of vigilance’ — travel security experts advise caution when traveling to the Middle East Jan 8, 2020  By MEERA JAGANNATHAN and ANDREW KESHNER The State Department says Americans should maintain ‘situational awareness’ in the region following the Baghdad airstrike Tourists at the Khazneh, or Treasury, in Petra, Jordan. The popular destination is in a region of the world where tensions can be expected to rise after an U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, killed a top Iranian military official. Iran and Iraq are obviously not destinations for most U.S. tourists, but experts say…

For many people, family vacations create the longest lasting, happiest memories that are carried and shared for a lifetime. A family volunteer vacation has the added element of a new country, community and culture and changing personal outlooks as families give back while receiving a profound, eye-opening experience. Here is a fantastic article in a recent edition of Chesapeake Family Life Volunteer Vacations that Give Back November 1, 2019 Taking a family vacation can be a great way for families to relax and reconnect. But what if your family wants a more meaningful experience than the annual trip to the beach or a theme park? Enter volunteer vacations, a popular alternative to the traditional vacation that allows families to give back while also getting away. Volunteer…

Corporations of all sizes have international suppliers, manufactures, agents and customers. Learning about the countries, communities and people is important in understanding how best to manage these business relationships.Kimberly Haley-Coleman of Globe Aware has decades of experience leading groups around the world on short-term volunteer experiences and creating and managing volunteer abroad solutions for groups and companies of every size. Managing Risk and Reward When Volunteering Abroad Nearly every public company in the world, and an increasing number of smaller companies, have some level of international engagement linked to their core business. It's part of the globally connected present. Industries ranging from medical, tech, import-export, energy, and finance to agriculture, production, construction, manufacturing, marketing, executive and risk management need to be alert to how geopolitical…

A family’s tradition of sending grandchildren, once they reach the age of 16, on trips to introduce them to different cultures and people and around the world continues. Here is a travelogue entry by Zeth to Guatemala with Globe Aware. Previous grandkids selected volunteer work in the Andes mountains of Peru, with the Roma people of Romania and in a small rural village in the West African country of Ghana. Day One: Lake Peten Itza, El Remate, Guatemala Moments like yesterday are why I’m a travel junkie. The guys still asleep, I took an early walk along a small road where we’re staying. What a treat! No city noise, only the idyllic sounds of nature: tropical birds unlike we hear at home … the occasional…

Idaho Senator Brent Hill shares the profound impact a Globe Aware volunteer vacation he took to Vietnam with his sons had on him. What Vietnam taught me about Idaho By Sen. Brent Hill | Guest columnist Apr 25, 2019 Vietnam. The very word sent chills down the back of every young man facing possible military draft during the sixties. It summoned to the mind other words like guerrilla warfare, Vietcong, communism, casualties. Over a quarter of a million American families lost a loved one in the Vietnam War. Four times that many Vietnamese were killed. As a boy growing up in the 1960s, I never expected to visit Vietnam — at least not for peaceful purposes. But earlier this month, three of our sons and…

Using hard earned-vacation or paid time off to volunteer may not resonate with everyone right off the bat. Understanding how volunteer travel and volunteering both domestically and internationally creates a healthier lifestyle, while also helping and learning from others is important. Working together as equals with host communities is a major focus in all Globe Aware programs. Read more and find out where to begin with Globe Aware’s volunteer abroad programs CLICK HERE

It all started with a Facebook post. 'Anybody want to join me for a 1-week volunteer trip to Cambodia...?' Well, sure I do! And thus began a life-changing adventure! On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, despite the holiday madness, my friend Mira Wooten was gracious enough to drive me up to SFO. There I met my friend and co-pilot on this adventure, Kyle. Kyle and I have been friends for almost 30 years. He and his husband travel extensively and often ask for friends to join them. I always wanted to say yes and the time was finally right! At 5 minutes after midnight, while turkeys were defrosting all across the US, our Singapore Airlines flight took off for Cambodia, by way of Hong Kong,…

Story and Photography by Donne Paine I believe hurdles in life are meant to be jumped over are and not obstacles to stop us. When initial plans to vacation in Cuba were derailed by hurricane Irma, my heart was broken but not my spirit. I had to find another way to get to this island, which sits only 90 miles off the coast of Miami. Enter Globe Aware, a non-governmental organization (NGO) with volunteer programs in 17 third world countries. They are a “voluntourism” group—a mixture of volunteering and touring. Initially waitlisted, I joined a group of four in December for a week, and had an experience not to be forgotten. Cuba is much more than classic cars and cigars. It is a country full…

Family volunteering holidays Is your family ready to really make a difference on your next overseas trip? By Carolyne AllmarkApril 2, 2017 Nobody wants to raise spoiled, entitled kids with no sense of empathy, or any idea of how lucky they are to live a life revolving around happy school days, a lovely home and – if you’re living here in the UAE – world travel at their finger tips. And it’s exactly this desire to travel and immerse in another culture that’s presenting families with the most exciting, and potentially life-changing, opportunity to do something really useful – and to give back – with their next holiday. Globe Aware is a non-profit organisation that plans volunteer vacations for families around the world, helping to…

Writer Linda Formichelli's new book "How to Do It All: The Revolutionary Plan to Create a Full, Meaningful Life — While Only Occasionally Wanting to Poke Your Eyes Out With a Sharpie" has a chapter on volunteering and features Globe Aware as one of the resources. Formichelli considers the fact women want to do, see, and experience everything they can to create a rich, memorable life, including rraveling, volunteer work, athletic events, entertaining, reading, learning, and trying new things but life and responsibilities get in the way. She offers a plan on how to do it all: Why stress should be welcomed, not avoided. The importance of living a do-it-all life. Why you shouldn’t expect support from your family…and where to get it instead. Why…

Ian Tilling, a retired British policeman, went to Romania to help children in need. His nonprofit Casa Ioana is a place where women and children can go to feel safe and learn how to rebuild their lives. Ian was so inspired and pleased with the impact and success of his efforts, he never left Romania. Here is his story from the The Christian Science Monitor. World People Making a Difference By Kit Gillet, Correspondent Bucharest, Romania — It’s been a journey to Romania of a quarter-century-and-counting for Ian Tilling. During that time he has been instrumental in setting up long-term shelters in Bucharest, the capital, initially for orphans, later for the homeless, and later still for families suffering from domestic abuse. Casa Ioana, which he…

Globetrotter Kimberly Haley-Coleman takes East Dallasites around the world By Brittany Nunn As the Obama administration eases travel restrictions to the long-exiled island of Cuba, millions of Americans are preparing to flock there in the upcoming years. Among those celebrating is Kimberly Haley-Coleman. Haley-Coleman, a multigenerational Lakewood resident, is the founder and director of Globe Aware, an organization that takes groups to countries for short-term, volunteer-centric trips. It’s “voluntourism” at its best, taking people into 17 countries from Costa Rica to Cambodia, and Haley-Coleman is especially excited to add Cuba to her list. Since the ’50s, when tension between the United States and communism reached its Cold War boiling point, Americans largely have been banned from traveling to the island nation, which sits less than…

Adan Gonzales was one of Globe Aware’s first recipients of the Global Wings initiative. Gonzalez grew up in Oak Cliff, a predominately Mexican-American community in Dallas that is mostly known for crime and socioeconomic strife. As a child, he sensed a disconnect between his surroundings and the American dream his parents had believed in when they immigrated to the United States in the 1980s.  Street violence was an everyday concern for the family as well as what seemed to be a series of never-ending financial blows. Adan was inspired by his parents’ work ethic and perseverance and at the age of eight, began to sell movies and snacks at the local flee market to help afford school uniforms for him and his brother. As his…

Globe Aware founder and executive director Kimberly Haley-Coleman wrote an article for Everyday Ambassador's “Wednesday Wisdom”, a weekly series curated by Everyday Ambassador Partnerships Manager Anjana Sreedhar. In her article, Kimberly highlights central values such as empathy and patience, and how they all relate to building a comprehensive cultural understanding about our environment. As a high school student in Dallas at Hocakday, I was fortunate to be able to travel internationally and to be involved in many lo­cal community service projects from candy striping at hos­pitals to working in women’s shelters. I was interested in other cultures and languages from a young age, and perhaps most specifically how cultural conditioning dictates such a great amount of our behaviors. It is something we don’t often examine, that…

Globe Aware founder Kimberly Haley-Coleman was offered the opportunity to explain the attraction of volunteer vacations with Globe Aware to Perrault magazine readers. Kimberly uses her not-for-profit company's Thailand destination to illustrate her points. READ THE ARTICLE - CLICK HERE

David Conrads, correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, recently wrote an inspiring profile on Caroline Boudreaux who works with India's orphans and started The Miracle Foundation. Caroline Boudreaux is a passionate, effective advocate for India's orphans The Miracle Foundation dramatically improves standards in a growing network of orphanages. By David Conrads, Correspondent Austin, Texas — Caroline Boudreaux was not looking for her life’s work back in 1999 when she set out with a friend on a yearlong trip around the world. But she found it in a remote village of thatch-roofed mud huts in the Indian state of Odisha. Invited to dine at the home of a local family, Ms. Boudreaux was completely unprepared for what she encountered: more than 100 filthy, emaciated orphans, wide-eyed…

Kimberly Haley-Coleman, founder and Executive Director of Globe Aware, recently sat down with Jessica Wynne Lockhart, contributing editor at Travel with Purpose's Verge Magazine to discuss how to make the most of a volunteer vacation. The Q & A is below. How to be an effective global citizen during the holiday season. As the holidays approach and the fiscal year draws to an end, it’s a natural time to think about how we can support our global community. But with thousands of charities to choose from, how do you select a reputable organization to donate your time or money to? It’s not an easy question, which is why we called in the experts: Nick Beardsley is the Project Advisor for Gapforce, a provider of structured…