How travel helped get Nepal back on track

^{Pictured: Pat Driscroll (left) and Intrepid’s Tom Smith}

Two weeks ago construction worker Pat Driscoll was busy working on a project in the tunnels of London Bridge, when he was surprised by Intrepid marketing executive Tom Smith, who presented him with a trip to Nepal.

Driscoll was one of many former Intrepid travellers to Nepal who had helped raise funds (£1,300 in his case) for the relief effort in the wake of last year’s devastating earthquake, which left more than 8,000 dead and destroyed more than half a million homes. He was also one of three donors to be randomly selected by Intrepid to fly to Nepal’s remote Tamang region – an area hit particularly hard by the quake – to see first-hand where their donations went.

Along with the help of its customers, Intrepid raised a total of £350,000. It was just one of many travel firms which rushed to help in the relief effort. G Adventures also raised more than £100,000, and awarded 154 homegrants, each worth around £250 – £750.

There were also individual members of the industry who contributed to the effort, including Celebrity Cruises’ head of business development Michael English, who first visited Nepal when he trekked to Everest Base Camp in December 2014. He had been due to return in May last year, but then the quake struck. English was so moved by the devastation it caused, that he decided to visit anyway and donate his time in helping the people.

“We wanted to do our bit in helping the local communities that we had met on our first trip – the people are just so incredible,” he told TTG.

“We were in the air when the second quake struck. We were diverted, and it was three days before we were able to reach Kathmandu. And it was chaos everywhere – we couldn’t do much, so we just went to the village of our guide and tried to help in tidying everything up and moving bricks.”