Leading with Kindness: How ALG Vacations Is Helping Travel Advisors Give Back

From handing out “Kindness cards” to hosting a voluntourism workshop, the importance of giving back was a recurring message at this year’s ALG Vacations Ascend conference. 

“Kindness, for us, is really our culture,” explained Ray Snisky, Group President, ALG Vacations, during the Ascend media Q&A session.  

“It’s my feeling that we have an obligation as people that have had success to be able to reinvest in communities where they need it.”

The tour operator has formalized a “Kindness Movement” to foster care and empathy among the travel industry. For the last three years, the company has hosted Kindness events that bring together travel advisors and industry leaders to cultivate care, compassion, and connection. Last year, ALGV took things further with specific resources for travel advisors, including a new Kindness toolkit and a special webinar.

Undeniably, ALGV is making a difference. At the most recent Kindness Conference, attendees raised over $4,500 for Escuela Auiles Peña, a school in the rural Los Guineos community of Miches, and worked onsite to improve the facility’s structure. 

And it’s not just finding ways to give back abroad: The tour operator awarded five $500 grants to travel advisors making a positive change in their communities.  

At the Q&A, Jacki Marks, global head of trade brands at ALGV, said that she’ll be working to expand on the Kindness initiative in 2026. One key area she’s hoping to build on is developing more long-term support strategies for the non-profits they partner with.

“We realised that touching as many organisations as we can is great, but sometimes an organisation needs more than a ‘one and done’ event,” Marks explained. “I want to see our team pick and make some longer investments into these different organisations.”

Marks also said ALGV will continue to find ways to bring more travel advisors into the movement. “Letting the advisors also guide some of this kindness movement next year is very, very important,” she explained.

How Travel Advisors Can Give Back

ALG Vacations is working to make it easier for travel advisors to get involved—and not just with the tour operator’s own charitable activities. ALGV is empowering travel advisors to “be kind” in various ways, starting as small as kind gestures to as ambitious as spearheading voluntourism groups. 

Ascend attendees received two stacks of blank “Kindness cards,” which are also available on ALGV360 as part of the Kindness toolkit. These business-card-sized slips of paper are designed for spreading positive affirmations. The front sports different messages such as “you make a difference” or “thank you” in multiple languages. On the back is a space to share some words of kindness. 

The concept behind the kindness cards is to spread messages of care. Travel advisors are encouraged to leave them with people who have touched their lives in some way, whether that’s a colleague who inspired them or a note of thanks for a housekeeper at a hotel.

The Ascend workshop “Blueprint for Impact: Voluntourism Groups” outlined the benefits of these kindness cards, as well as other ways travel advisors can give back to meaningful causes.

Led by BDM Jen Palka, Dan Miller (director, group sales), and Rossy Rodriguez (senior manager, U.S. sale & business development, Amstar), the breakout session focused on opportunities for travel advisors to meld travel passion with volunteer work. The workshop covered the basics of how to get started on volunteer work, tips for building a following within one’s community, and practical advice for planning a voluntourism group.

The main takeaway: start from an authentic place, and build up a community of like-minded people, starting locally and with realistic expectations. Not every initiative needs to be as ambitious as a voluntourism group; Amstar has a list of vetted organizations, and Rodriguez said that an Amstar representative will personally deliver financial donations to these locations.

Another option is to collect and send items. Miller described how third-party shippers will find room on cargo ships to send over humanitarian aid to countries affected by poverty and oppression.

Addressing the room’s attendees, Miller stated that “we are very blessed people,” and argued that we have an opportunity to turn channel such blessings into positive change.

“You’re here for a reason,” he said.

Practical Tips for Planning a Voluntourism Trip with ALG Vacations

Palka recommended travel advisors start their “give back” journey by identifying a cause they are genuinely passionate about and then work on developing that message authentically.

Once an advisor has started to share that message and build a local network, the next step is to identify a funding source. Voluntourism trips have a significant cost, and there will be people who want to donate financially who are unable to put forward the full price to participate in an overseas trip.

When it comes to actually planning, travel advisors can use ALGV’s VAX system to find nearby hotels and start planning key details, such as location, date, and group size. Creating a custom event page that describes the purpose, itinerary, and goals of the trip can be a helpful tool for promoting the group.

Another key tip: remember that a successful voluntourism group needs to be fun for participants. These experiences are a wonderful opportunity for relationship building and personal development in addition to giving back, and fostering a sense of community within the group will go a long way in making the trip a more enjoyable experience for all. Establishing expectations early, introducing participants in a group chat before the trip departs, and including team-building tools (like matching t-shirts or name tags) will help elevate the experience.

Amstar currently offers a list of vetted organizations that travel advisors can connect with for give-back activities, such as finding a school to paint and support. The company also offers special rates for transport on designated voluntourism trips, but advisors need to contact special services at least 30 days in advance. 

Miller told Travel Market Report that ALGV is looking for ways to make it easier for travel advisors to plan voluntourism groups. One area the company is exploring is connecting with hotels and negotiating add-ons or resources for voluntourism trips.

“We know that hotels want to give back just as much as AMSTAR and ALGV,” said Miller. “We’re trying to find those hotels that are close to some of these organisations that are willing to give additional comps and concessions to the volunteers and groups such as free meeting space, free audio-visual [equipment], maybe bagged lunches… providing extra things to bring that group to life.”

ALG Vacations is also working to add a field in the VAX system to communicate with hotels that the trip is specifically for a volunteer group.

“We will be one of the first in the industry to offer a voluntourism group type so that we’re clearly communicating upfront with the hotels that this is a voluntourism group,” he explained.

At the end of the day, Miller told TMR that he’s just grateful for the opportunity to give back and help others in the industry launch their own give-back journeys.

“It’s great when I can combine my personal passions outside of the workplace and have the support of ALGV and Hyatt,” he said.