Gliding up the Nile from Aswan to Cairo on a sleek luxury cruiser, Abercrombie and Kent Philanthropy (AKP), the philanthropy arm of the upscale tour operator Abercrombie & Kent (A&K), hosts its team of global coordinators–each leading responsible travel projects in their community–for the annual A&K Philanthropy’s Coordinator Training in Egypt.

Each morning, the group greets the day with a delicious buffet breakfast, then enjoys the same exclusive Egypt & the Nile itinerary as well-heeled A&K guests. In Luxor, they head out on a private tour of the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. In Aswan, there is a visit to the Philae Temple on the Island of Agilika. In Cairo, the Sphinx, the Giza Pyramids and the magnificent Pyramid of Cheops beckon. Following the morning tours, the team then visits an AKP-supported philanthropy project in each city.

After lunch, the coordinators get down to work, sharing power-point presentations, strategy sessions and updates on the mission-driven projects each one oversees. They brainstorm ideas and discuss plans for expansion while offering one another support and insight, led by Executive Director Keith Sproule.

Glory is concerned for the future of the girls at the Iliboru Special Needs school in her native Tanzania, who now have access to clean water, but only a primary-school education, if that. Dennis, from the western edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda, wants to expand a school lunch program now serving 4300 schoolchildren near the remote Sanctuary Gorilla Forest Lodge. Hiba, in Marrakech, is working to create education and counseling programs for female victims of domestic violence, and afterschool programs for their children. Evelyne works to expand the Safe Water Project that now provides clean water to 33,348 students in Kenya’s Maasai Mara near Sanctuary Olonana.

The work is rewarding, but it isn’t easy. “Being patient is part of the job,” says Ahmed Hamza, Coordinator, Egypt, who works with the Magdi Yacoub Aswan Heart Centre, a free pediatric hospital that provides life-saving care to children, and the Funtasia Cultural Center, a school for arts education and nontraditional learning. “You have to stay calm, stay focused, work and wait. When you’ve walked all this way, you’re not going to stop. You need to keep going.”

Pioneering Sustainable & Responsible Travel

Tour operators and luxury resorts around the globe are embracing sustainable and responsible travel like never before. According to Future Market Insights (FMI), the responsible tourism market reached $244.6 billion in 2023, and is projected to hit $413.3 billion by 2033. But what is responsible travel, really? According to UN Tourism, it is about “making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit,” with operators, hoteliers, governments, local people and tourists taking responsibility and action to make tourism more sustainable.

There are a lot of people paying lip service to it, but Abercrombie & Kent has been setting an example for decades. Before “responsible,” “sustainable” “conscious” “ethical” travel were a blink in anyone’s eye, A&K founder Geoffrey Kent understood that travel can have a positive impact on entire communities, build bridges of understanding and be a force for good. Kent created AKP–a separate entity from A&K Travel, which now also includes Sanctuary Retreats, Cox & Kings, Crystal Cruises–to be entirely dedicated to building and sustaining projects in communities in close proximity to guest accommodations around the globe.

AKP is a 501(c)3 U.S. nonprofit and a registered charity in the U.K. with offices on all seven continents, 57 active projects in 27 countries and 17 coordinators on the ground, as well as an eye toward expanding in South Africa, Vietnam, Argentina, Costa Rica and more. The projects focus on four pillars: education, jobs, health and the environment.

Last year, AKP received $2.4 million in support from the A&K Travel Group (AKTG), to cover overhead, and 100 percent of guest donations went directly toward funding community programs. They partner with mission-aligned NGOs, such as LifeStraw, makers of portable water filtering and purification devices. Working Bikes in Chicago has helped send more than 19,000 bikes, worth a total of $1.9 million, enabling local women to start small bike businesses housed in the shipping containers. In Cambodia, where one in five rural Cambodians has no access to safe water, the Trailblazer Foundation has built over 2000 wells serving 17,000 people.

How Responsible Travel Changes Lives

Even in the uppermost rungs of luxury travel, A&K has long held a cachet. The award-winning travel company began by pioneering experiential African safaris in 1962, and in the 60-plus years since, has continued to curate unique experiences that not only connect travelers with the heart and soul of a destination, they forge authentic connections that draw from local culture and expertise by bringing guests from nearby lodges into local communities to see, first-hand, the work that is being done.

And once guests see how little it takes to truly change lives, it’s a leap of faith that they will want to contribute. It’s no surprise that 99 percent of donations occur after guests visit and see for themselves. AKP Philanthropy creates change for the locals, but the experience also impacts the guests, and their children. “We’re doing this because we really want to help and make change,” says Upamanyu Raju, Coordinator, India. “The more guests we can get to visit, the better it is. They see what we’re doing, and, from a travel perspective, they get to experience the people. It’s really hard to see that from a luxury hotel room.”

The Future of Responsible Travel

The responsible tourism model impacts the future of tourism as well, by helping to sustain the luxury lodges and Sanctuary hotels in a pretty profound way. For example, by educating students in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, lodges in those remote areas are guaranteed educated staff for the future. “We can all do this,” says Sproule. “We are all agents of change. A&K is just one operator,” he continues. “Imagine if every operator in these areas had the same level of commitment.”

Meanwhile, Sandra dreams of expanding The Rainbow Foundation in Urubamba, near Cuzco, Peru, which provides education, family medicine and nutrition to vulnerable indigenous children in the Sacred Valley. Celia wants to build more wells for families around Siem Reap. Rahma is dedicated to providing job training, education and medical supplies to refugee communities in Jordan. Sebastian, in Zambia, works with AKP-built clinics and maternity wards that stop transmission of HIV from mother to child in an area where HIV levels hover around 25 percent.

“The DNA of the company is to think big,” says Sproule, who has worked at the juncture of development and tourism at places like the WWF and the World Bank. “We don’t scratch the surface. Everything we do is for real impact. The travel advisors are asking for it, guests are asking for it, the travel and tourism industry can elevate the message of impact. To me, this is the model for what the industry should be like.”

An authentic responsible travel experience can often yield unexpected benefits. “There are some families who think of this as integral to their vacation experience,” says Sproule. “But there are a lot of guests who don’t know that it’s going to be a highlight of their trip.”



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