Conscious Travel: The Special Olympics World Games

Over the last decade more and more people has decided to travel the world and experience it in their own unique, specially those who were on their “gap year” and baby boomers who decided to see the world on their retirement years.

The terms “Voluntourism” and “Travelanthropy” started to pop up, with a large number of travelers who, being used to being involved with their communities at home started to feel the need to give back to that new and discovered world.

But lets say you are neither in your gap year nor retiring, let´s say, you are someone aware of the importance of helping out as much as you can even if you are on vacation; what can you do?

You are a conscious traveller, you look for destinations and engage with service providers who are as conscious as you are on sustainable issues who think globally but act locally.

That being said, as hosts in different destinations, we have learned over the years the importance of getting involved with the community and giving back to the place where we are living and working in, we are aware that by helping change the perception of how the world works we are creating a better place too. Therefore, inclusion, education and environmental issues are really close to our hearts and a huge part of our core values.

That is why we are so glad to share that this year we were invited – through the Olympus Foundation and ASTRA Cancún - to support the Mexican Open Water Swimming Team for the Special Olympics World Games that were held in Los Angeles between July 25th and August 2nd in which our athletes brought not one but three medals home, yay!

The Special Olympic World Games are different from the Paralympics since these games focus on people with intellectual disabilities, created in 1968, with the misión to create a world based on inclusion, today about 6,500 special athletes from 162 countries compete in disciplines such as Open Water Swimming, Judo, Basketball, Thriathlon, Powerlifting and Equestrian.

The disciplined, selfconfident, high performance athletes who participated in the Open Water Swimming competition, dominated the freestyle category and by teams in distances that went from the 800 meters to the 1500 meter range.

Athletes Beatriz Domínguez, Juan Soda and Omar Vera from Cancun brought gold and bronze medals home, demonstrating that hard work, discipline and faith in themselves are the basic tools to accomplished goals and fulfill dreams. There is no need to say how happy and proud we are, since inclusion and hard work are a couple of our beliefs and core values.

So maybe when you are at the comfort of your home or office and look for a place to go, your airport transfers and things to do within your vacation destination with us, you are helping us help others without realizing it, so how does it feel to be a conscious traveller?