GROUP PLANNERS, RELIGIOUS LEADERS & FAITH COMMUNITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS

Everyone goes on vacation. Get your religious leader and faith community involved!

Did you know that most people take vacations? Actually, statistically speaking, the majority of people take at least one annual trip. This means that a majority of the members of your faith community or organization travel at least once each year.

What else does this mean? If you're hoping to personally embark on a volunteer vacation, cruise, retreat, leisure vacation, pilgrimage or conference this year, chances are that others from your community are also interested in the same type of trip as well. What should you do? Get your religious leader and faith community involved by organizing a group-wide trip or event.

But that’s not all. You might also consider starting a travel program if your place of worship or faith community currently does not have one.  You will be surprised by the great amount of interest and attention such a program creates.

Does your faith community have a travel program?

Does your faith community or religious organization have a travel program ? If not, why not? Travel is one of the best ways to experience faith, fun and fellowship.

If you were to develop a travel program for your faith community or organization, think of all the benefits you could bring your members. Think of the deepening of faith, fun and fellowship. Think of the new tight-knit community you would experience upon the group's return home. And, think of the new spirit, enthusiasm and enriched bonds that would develop between members after such memorable and life-changing experiences.
It’s for reasons and benefits such as these that hosting a travel program really should no longer be viewed as an option for many faith communities but rather as a virtual “must.”

Imagine what your faith community would look like if the majority of your members took advantage of your travel program. Imagine the lives that could be changed through exploring holy sites, embarking on missionary trips, studying one’s faith on cruises, participating in religious conferences, participating in retreats and sharing fellowship on leisure vacations. Few activities can have such immediate, powerful and long-lasting effects on members than these types of travel experiences. It all begins with one person (YOU!) taking the initiative to launch or expand a travel program at your faith community or religious organization.

How can I build a thriving travel program?

Where to begin? First, talk to your faith community or religious leader. Ask for their support, approval and blessing of the new travel program. Once they are on board, it's relatively smooth sailing. Second, find someone (it may be you) who can serve as the official travel program leader (or leaders). You might ask your religious community leader to make an announcement about the new program and ask for volunteers to step forward.

Next, develop a full calendar year of events. Activities can range from trips to hosting a conference to inviting guest speakers for a travel night (inviting a travel agent to speak about faith-based vacation opportunities) to sharing travel experiences in a group setting while enjoying an international potluck dinner. In short, you might consider offering monthly events with one big trip per year.

Speaking of trips, be sure to find a good travel provider that can service your group’s needs. You can find a list of travel providers in this Religious Travel Buyer’s Guide, as well as via the online WRTA Trip Planning Directory.

You should also consider conducting a survey with your members about their travel preferences. Poll your faith community and find out where and what types of trips they most often embark upon each year. Do many of them travel overseas? Take cruises? Visit attractions? Go skiing or hiking? Be sure to offer at least one or more annual, community vacations that reflect their interests.

Once you've designed the list of travel activities and events for the year including the big trip (or trips), it's then time to publicize them. How can you most effectively promote your travel program, trips and events? That's our next topic.

Top 10 ways to promote your trips and events

Unless you are a seasoned pro at sales and marketing, the task of promoting a trip or event to your fellow members can feel overwhelming at first. Don’t worry, though. First, travel is a popular conversation topic, and you will find that many people are receptive to hearing about a faith community-sponsored trip or event.

Second, below are 10 easy steps for promoting your trip. By following these strategies, you will be well on your way to selling out your event. (Note: Although the word “trip” is used in the following list of 10 points, the promotional tips and hints below also apply to events.)

1. Tell and invite others on a trip. There’s virtually no better tool for promoting and advertising a trip than personally telling others about it and inviting them on it. Best yet, it costs nothing to do this.
2. Ask your spiritual leader to join your trip. Be sure to invite your community spiritual leader to join your trip. Having your spiritual leader participate in the event almost always ensures immediate interest in the trip by fellow members.
3. Have your religious leader make the official announcement. Whether the spiritual leader of the faith community can join the trip or not, be sure to ask this person (or someone of similar influence) to officially announce the trip to members and encourage them to sign up for it.
4. Print and hand out flyers. After receiving approval from your religious leader to spread the word about the trip to fellow members, your next step is to get flyers of the trip printed and placed in the bulletin, handed out to members, placed in the brochure rack and so forth.
5. Get other committee leaders involved. One of the best ways to promote the trip/event to all segments of your faith community or organization, is to get the committee leaders involved in the trip promotion. Ask them to promote your trip at their respective committee meetings.
6. Hang posters/notices/announcements. Hang posters and other notices/announcements about the trip around the building facility, especially at entrances. And, above all, make sure the posters are attractive and appealing. You want to capture everyone’s attention!
7. Call and e-mail campaigns: Ask for volunteers to assist you in a calling campaign to inform fellow members about the trip. In addition, conduct an e-mail campaign to fellow members to promote the trip.
8. Host a trip promotion get-together. One of the best ways to promote a trip is to host a get-together. Here you can present videos, photos and/or Power Point presentations of the planned trip. And, as always, consider having some free food (i.e. pizza) on hand; this almost always increases turnout.
9. Create a Web page on the faith community Web site. Create a Web page on your faith community Web site which advertises your trip(s). Even better yet, try to get an entire section of the Web site dedicated to your travel program.
10. Start a Social Network Group. In following up to the above Web-page idea, you might also consider launching an online social network group for your trip. This enables you to post photos, videos and blogs about the trip. How can you get started with this? Visit the WRTA Social Network; here you can create a private or public online social network group promoting your trip/event.

Five-year travel plan/calendar

One of the most exciting and innovative ideas for your ministry is offering a five-year travel plan and calendar. In other words, put together a list of planned trips covering a five-year time frame. This will enable your members to properly plan for their trips. Here is an example of what a five-year travel program could look like:

Year 1: Pilgrimage
Year 2: Biblical seminar cruise
Year 3: Host a conference
Year 4: Missionary trip
Year 5: Leisure vacation

Although you will need to discern whether a five-year travel plan is appropriate for your faith community, there are many advantages to offering it. It gives everyone in your congregation or religious organization something to look forward to, and the trips become popular topics of conversation. In addition, a five-year program provides plenty of travel options and opportunities for members.

A five-year travel program also provides members with an opportunity to save money and prepare financially for the trip(s). It also provides ample time for people to ask their respective family and friends to join the trip. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, it provides abundant time for you to promote the trips within the community.

The bottom line is this: be creative with your travel program. Whether or not you offer a five-year travel pl, be sure to provide a variety of trips and trip themes in order to attract your members and create some buzz. No matter what you decide in regards to your travel program, just remember to have fun, be creative and continually strive to keep your travel program fresh, relevant and vibrant!

Top 10 reasons to host a travel program

1. Travel provides a wonderful opportunity to combine faith, fun and fellowship.
2. Travel is one of the most popular and common forms of leisure and recreation.
3. Travel appeals to all demographics and age groups.
4. Travel makes religious history, heritage, holy sites and culture come alive.
5. Travel enables one to experience their faith spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically. 
6. Travel fills participants with inspiration and strengthens a sense of life purpose.
7. Travel presents an opportunity to explore the world and God's creation.
8. Travel delivers a superb educational venue for learning about world history and various cultures, politics and peoples.
9. Travel fosters closer bonds between members, as well as between members and religious leaders. Travel also offers ideal outreach opportunities to inactive and/or non-members.
10. Travel provides opportunity for fund-raising.