Thomson, First Choice Join Hands for Sustainable Development Scheme

For all Summer 2009 bookings, Thomson will join forces with First Choice and introduce the ‘World Care Fund’. The scheme gives customers the opportunity to donate £1 per adult and fifty pence per child on an opt-out basis –a donation that is matched by the company.

Originally launched by First Choice in 2007, the scheme has so far raised over £1,000,000 for The Travel Foundation, who organizes projects benefiting local environments and communities overseas, and Climate Care, one of the UK’s leading offsetting providers.

In the past 12 months, more than one third of First Choice customers contributed to the scheme in which the payment is automatically added to the bill, and explained so the customer knows exactly what it is.

The payment is easily removed if the customer does not wish to contribute. With other industry schemes traditionally having an uptake of around 15 percent, the opt-out system has proven to be a winning formula.

The Travel Foundation, thetravelfoundation.org.uk which receives funding from the World Care Fund, helps to care for the places we love to visit, and is the first organization of its type in the world. Its role is to ensure that local people get a fair deal from tourism, and it will receive twenty percent of monies raised from Summer 2009 bookings.