How Community Connection in Hospitality Builds Loyalty and Legacy

Michelle Pascoe: Welcome everyone to today’s podcast. I’m really looking forward to this conversation because Christopher is all about luxury travel, and listeners know I love travelling. I do not like sitting in one spot for too long. Christopher is the founder of luxury philanthropic travel brands such as Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations, and he serves his mostly US-based clients from Auckland, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife, two boys and dog, Zola. Welcome, Christopher. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Christopher Hill: Thanks, Michelle. It’s an honour to be here.

Michelle Pascoe: I love a short, sharp bio because then we can get into the real conversation. Christopher, luxury travel has traditionally been associated with indulgence and exclusivity. You’re redefining it to include purpose and legacy, and we know that is so important across generations. How do you define meaningful luxury, and why is that shift happening now?

Christopher Hill: I’d define meaningful luxury as travel where both the traveller and the destination are enhanced by the experience in a positive way. It’s mutually enriching. From a traveller’s perspective, they find a sense of purpose in their travel.

Michelle Pascoe: We hear the word “purpose” a lot, but it is more than a fad word, isn’t it? What does that word mean to you personally?

Christopher Hill: For me, it connects to fulfilment and self-actualisation. By giving back and helping others, I find fulfilment, and the research supports that. Many of our clients feel the same way. Purpose gives people something meaningful to move towards, and that creates a ripple effect far beyond the individual.
 

Michelle Pascoe: Many people see philanthropy and luxury as opposites. How do you intentionally combine high-end travel experiences with meaningful giveback without compromising either?
 

Christopher Hill: Volunteering and luxury are often seen as opposites, but when you dig a little deeper, they work together very powerfully. Our model enables people with means to give back while still enjoying the level of comfort they are used to. The impact can be profound.

With Hands Up Holidays, we use a philanthro-volunteering model. With Impact Destinations, we use a pure philanthropic model. In both cases, the biggest benefit our clients bring is funding. That funding supports communities and projects, creates jobs and employs local people. In some Hands Up Holidays experiences, travellers still roll up their sleeves and help with a project such as building a house or an eco-friendly stove, but a lot of the work is done by local experts thanks to the funding. Guests then come in, complete the finishing touches under supervision, interact with local people and experience the project in a meaningful way. We pair that with luxury accommodation, so people can enjoy comfort while also making a real impact.

Michelle Pascoe: It’s not just the immediate impact on one person or family, is it? It grows from there. You’re engaging and employing other people in that community as well, and that ripple effect is what makes it so beautiful. It gives people the opportunity to really immerse themselves. It’s not just writing a cheque. Is that what you find with your clients too?

Christopher Hill: A hundred percent. That immersion is where the magic happens. It all really changed for me on a trip I took to South Africa back in 2002. In addition to staying in beautiful safari lodges and exploring the Garden Route and the winelands, I also helped to build a house for a family in one of the townships just outside Cape Town. That experience added two extra dimensions to travel for me. One was engaging with the family we were helping, hearing their stories and gaining insight into their lives. The second was that it simply felt great to make a difference.

At the time I was working in investment banking in London, and I started thinking, “Why don’t I use the business skills I’ve learned to create something more fulfilling and make it easier for others to have experiences like this?”

Michelle Pascoe: That was going to be my next question. How did you get into it? There you were, in investment banking in London, helping build a home in South Africa. How did you walk away and decide this was the business you were going to build?

Christopher Hill: Looking back, it’s amazing how it all came together. When I first moved to London in 1996, I was flatting with a couple of guys. One of them later moved to South Africa and became a tour guide in Cape Town. He invited me down on that trip, and I already had the travel bug, so it didn’t take much convincing.

We were talking about what I might do next. I was enjoying my work, but it was demanding, and I was open to new opportunities. One idea I had was to combine sightseeing with giving back. My friend said he had a good mate who ran Habitat for Humanity in Cape Town and asked if I wanted to join a build. I said yes.

That experience was transformational. I was already thinking about doing something different, and the timing of that trip, combined with that experience, led me to take a year out. I studied in Vancouver, wrote the first business plan and the idea really took root from there.

Michelle Pascoe: I always love hearing how people start businesses. If you hadn’t shared a flat with that person, if you hadn’t gone to South Africa, life might have looked very different. What does a typical day look like for one of your philanthropic luxury itineraries? We’re all probably picturing something slightly different.

Christopher Hill: The two brands are similar in concept, but they are a little different.
With Hands Up Holidays, the idea is a luxury trip that combines sightseeing and volunteering, much like my South Africa experience. These trips are primarily focused on families, although not exclusively.
With Impact Destinations, the idea is that a philanthropic donation unlocks a unique experience for the traveller while enabling experts on the ground to do what they do best.

For example, in Indonesia, a guest might fund the rescue of an orangutan family facing habitat loss due to palm oil production. That funding supports their rescue and relocation to a protected island. In return, the traveller gets to visit an exclusive tract of rainforest with expert guides to see orangutans, sun bears and other wildlife in the wild.

Another example, which we are still finalising, is in Asia. Guests can fund the work of an organisation rescuing young women from sex trafficking, and in return they can spend time with the people involved in the operation before and after, learning how the work is prepared and carried out. So the experiences can be very different, but both are about impact.

Michelle Pascoe: Do you find that once people have these experiences, they come back or stay in contact with you to keep supporting the good work?

Christopher Hill: That definitely happens. It is especially true with Hands Up Holidays, partly because it has been around longer and partly because of the family focus. These trips create strong family bonding and a deeper connection with the communities. With Impact Destinations, many of the projects are environmental, so it can be a little harder to maintain an ongoing personal connection, but people still care deeply and often continue their support.

Michelle Pascoe: It’s such a wonderful mix, from people to animals, and it gives people purpose while also helping them feel good. From a business perspective, what are you seeing in terms of demand for purpose-driven travel? Are luxury travellers actively seeking that impact now?

Christopher Hill: I probably have a slightly distorted lens because we tend to attract people who are already looking for this kind of travel, but yes, they are actively seeking it. On our enquiry form, when people say they found us through Google, we ask what search terms they used, and they often put things like “luxury volunteer vacation”. So there is definitely active demand, and it’s increasing. It is still a niche, but it is a growing niche.

Michelle Pascoe: Do you think that increase is driven by cultural awareness, generational change or a post-pandemic shift?

Christopher Hill: Yes, absolutely. Immediately after the pandemic there was that wave of revenge travel, which was more about pure indulgence, but I think we’ve moved beyond that. People are once again thinking beyond themselves. They’re thinking about purpose, making a difference and leaving a legacy.

Michelle Pascoe: Hands Up Holidays has a strong family volunteer focus. Why is travelling together in this way so powerful for families, especially children?

Christopher Hill: When we launched in 2006, I expected our main audience to be young professionals aged 25 to 35 who were cash-rich, time-poor and wanted both a great holiday and the chance to make a difference. Right from the beginning, though, we were getting bookings from families. Families were not on my radar at all, so I asked them why they were booking with us.

They would say things like, “Our kids come from very privileged backgrounds and we want them to appreciate how fortunate they are,” or “We’re looking for a great family bonding experience, and this really nails it.” That resonated with me, and it resonates even more now that I have children of my own.

One Bali trip is a great example. Alongside rafting, cooking classes, hiking and snorkelling, we helped install a disability-accessible bathroom for a paraplegic gentleman in a remote village. In Bali, because it is a Hindu island, disability can sometimes be viewed through a lens of bad karma, and people with severe disabilities can be hidden away and live very isolated lives. To provide a measure of dignity and independence in something as personal as going to the bathroom is actually quite profound.

It was wonderful to see our boys drawing water from the village well, carrying it to the cement mix, helping with the mixing and then wheeling it over to the experts doing the skilled parts of the job. They also got to play soccer with the local kids. That is very much what a Hands Up Holidays experience can look like.

Michelle Pascoe: What sort of long-term impact do you think that has had on your boys and on the families who have travelled with you?

Christopher Hill: One measure of that impact is the number of repeat clients we have had over the years. Some families have travelled with us five or six times. Another example that really stayed with me came from a family who travelled with us to Morocco and helped build a library in a rural school outside Marrakech.
A few months after the trip, around Christmas time, they contacted me and said, “You won’t believe it. Our kids have said they don’t want Christmas gifts this year. They want us to send them to the children they met at the school.”

That speaks volumes.

Michelle Pascoe: It really does. It shows that legacy is not just a one-off moment. It continues through the family and beyond. Do you see that as one of the reasons people want their children involved too?

Christopher Hill: Definitely. It inspires them to become the next generation of world changers.

Michelle Pascoe: If every luxury travel provider embedded purpose into their guest experience, what kind of transformation would we see?

Christopher Hill: It would go far beyond industry transformation. It would be world-changing. The luxury travel market is so large that the impact would be colossal. Even if every trip simply included something as straightforward as building one house, the results would be extraordinary.

Michelle Pascoe: That reminds me of a trip connected to my daughter’s school, which supports an orphanage in Vietnam. Seeing that kind of work first hand has a profound effect. You never know how one moment in time might shape someone’s future in a direct or indirect way.

I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. It’s not just about the luxury. It’s about giving back, purpose and legacy. I know my listeners will want to know how they can connect with you and learn more about your work.

Christopher Hill: The websites are the best place to start. We are on social media, but the websites take you straight to the heart of it. They are handsupholidays.com and impactdestinations.com.

I should also add that I love creating itineraries for our clients. It’s my passion project, and every single enquiry that comes through is personally handled by me.

Michelle Pascoe: That personal touch makes such a difference. People want something unique to them, but they also want to know they are safe and supported when they travel. Is there anything I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to share?

Christopher Hill: I think we’ve covered a lot, but one extra teaser is that we have another brand concept for the corporate market. It applies the same idea to incentive trips or sales trips that include a corporate responsibility element. It is brilliant from a team bonding and employee engagement perspective. We can already handle enquiries, and the website is currently being refreshed, so people can keep an eye out for handsupincentives.com as well.

Michelle Pascoe: I love that corporate purpose angle because so many of our hospitality clients are focused on team connection, both inside and outside the workplace. When an organisation is doing something meaningful, it attracts people who want to work there because they know it is about more than just putting in the hours.
We’ll include all of those links in the show notes. Christopher, thank you so much for sharing what you do and how people can get involved, whether they are travelling solo, as a couple or as a family.

Listeners, if this conversation has resonated with you, please reach out to Christopher and share this podcast with your friends and family. You never know who may be thinking, “I want a luxury travel experience, but I want to do more than just spend money. I want to give back.”

Christopher Hill: Thank you, Michelle. I’ve really enjoyed it.

Michelle Pascoe: Thank you.