TripAdvisor has teamed up with microlending platform Kiva to facilitate travelers to fund projects for places they've visited and liked or disliked.
How many times have you found a place you've vacationed so wonderful that you wish you could do something for it? How many times have you wished you could change something about a place you've gone for a holiday? Travel giants TripAdvisor has teamed up with Kiva to help travelers fund projects from the places they've just visited.
TripAdvisor will be funding the project with $250,000 and is requesting its users (which are more than 10,000) to fund projects they might be interested in. According to a report by Bostinno, TripAdvisor won't just be writing Kiva a check, but will be looking in to the day to day process of the project to guarantee success.
The hope, said Kiva's President Premal Shah, is to "combine the power of TripAdvisor's crowdsourcing and Kiva's crowd funding to make meaningful change in the world. Through this partnership, the affinity you develop for the people and places you visit can continue when you return home. In most places in the world, often only a relatively small amount of money stands between a person and their dream to start or expand their shop, send their children to school, or bring solar light and clean water into their homes."
So how is this process going to work? A press release by TripAdvisor explains the whole process:
"When a traveler reviews a hotel, vacation rental, restaurant or attraction in a Kiva-supported country on one of TripAdvisor's English-language sites (US, UK, Canada, Ireland, and Australia), that reviewer is eligible to make a $25 microloan to a recipient in that country. This microloan is funded by TripAdvisor."
"After submitting a review for an eligible country, the user will receive an email from TripAdvisor with information about the microloan. This email directs the reviewer to Kiva.org, where the $25 microloan gift from TripAdvisor can be applied. Microloan gifts will only be offered for the user's first review of each eligible country."
"The reviewer can see personal and business details of potential borrowers in that country. The reviewer selects a borrower and Kiva then facilitates the loan."
"Funds contributed by TripAdvisor will be lent and relent for one year by TripAdivsor travelers. After that year, 100 percent of the repayments will be donated by TripAdvisor to Kiva. The average repayment rate of loans facilitated on Kiva.org is 99 percent."
