A leading operator in the charity challenge market is predicting a continuing surge in the number of Brits taking on treks, bike rides and iconic adventures in the name of raising money for good causes.
Charity Challenge, which takes around 2,000 people a year on active trips, has reported its busiest start to a year for five years, as confidence returns after the recession to a market that’s now worth 100s of millions of pounds a year. Simon Albert, managing director of Charity Challenge attributes the rise to a shift in the types of holiday people are looking for, and the feel-good factor about taking on a challenge to raise money for a good cause.
“The next two or three years are going to see a massive increase in the number of UK people doing challenge events. More and more people don’t want to spend two weeks on a beach when they only have a limited amount of time a year. They want to climb mountains, go on a trek or boat down a river. And they want to help good causes while they do it – to make a difference.”
Simon has been running Charity Challenge for 15 years and his firm organises more than 100 events a year. As well as a huge range of UK challenges, the most popular trips are to iconic ‘bucket list’ destinations – to climb Kilimanjaro in Africa, trek to Peru’s Machu Picchu, or walk the Great Wall of China, and it’s a top three that still remains unchanged over that time.
“Most of the people who go on one of our trips see it as a once in a lifetime experience,” says Simon, “and most are not hardcore adventure travellers. They are often ordinary people who are at particular points in their lives, whether it’s through bereavement, divorce, a milestone birthday, empty nesting, or because they or someone they know has been ill or is suffering. Whatever the reason, they want to do something special, something worthwhile.
“But time and time again, when they’ve had that experience of working towards and training for an event, they find it’s a powerful, life-changing drug and want to do another.
“It’s not just the physical achievement,” says Simon. “People taking on a challenge have to get out of their comfort zone, and often out of a rut. They get fitter, lose weight, gain confidence and the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile that benefits other people as well as themselves. There’s no denying it’s often a huge emotional experience, in the build up and during the event.”
Among Charity Challenge’s programme of new trips for 2014, Burma is registering as the hottest new destination, with three of the five trips already filled. An orang utan conservation trek in Sumatra is proving popular too, as is a remote biking challenge in Iceland – which has already been adopted by the Manchester United Foundation as the club’s charity venture for this year.
