Innovation

Travel Sparks is the first social enterprise in Indonesia that carries the spirit of "Travel With A Cause". With the spirit of "Travel With A Cause", Travel Sparks provides a meaningful holiday experience by combining local culture and lifestyle, while contributing positive educational progress for local communities.

One of the contributions, among others, is the volunteering activities. “The travelers can come, and directly interact with the children there, through teaching and learning guidance,” said Nena, Business Development Associate of Travel Sparks. The travelers can also help in the form of donations, both money, and books to build a community learning center in a rural village. Some of the benefits from Travel Sparks will be donated to Taman Bacaan Pelangi to set up children's libraries and provide access to books for more children in Eastern Indonesia. All this is also done while enjoying the beauty of nature and visiting places that are just amazing in Indonesia so that every traveler can feel a different holiday with very meaningful experiences.

Inspiration

Nila Tanzil, the owner and founder of Travel Sparks, loves traveling and exploring new places. For her, what makes the travel experience memorable is the people that she meets within those travels. The interactions with local people, the conversations, and the activities that she had done together with all of them.

In one of her travels, she had visited a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos, and discovered a small school behind a sanctuary. The school had tiny classrooms, and she was compelled to look inside and explore. When she walked to the school, suddenly someone greeted her. He was an English teacher. They chatted, and then he invited her to come back the next day and help him teach in his class. She didn’t expect to spend her holiday volunteering, teaching an English class in a small school in Luang Prabang. In the end, it turned out to be one of the most fulfilling experiences of her life.

She made friends with the kids. Later that night she was invited to dinner by the teachers of the school. They ate together in a small alley, just off to the side of a bustling traditional market. She then spent the rest of her holiday in Luang Prabang hanging out with the locals and the kids, in between her sightseeing beautiful temples and other tourist destinations. In just several days, she learned more about the local lifestyle and culture that she would have in two weeks had she not explored that schoolyard.

The experience has made a big difference in her journey. That day was more than just a visit to a beautiful place, seeing knotted ancient trees and old temples, but more of understanding the local culture and contributing to a community. After that day in Laos, Nila became addicted to volunteering and getting closer to the community she was traveling through. The experience was so worthwhile, and it left warm feelings in her heart. And so, now she wants everyone to feel the same whenever they go traveling.

Overall impact

Travel Sparks’s business will give an overall impact of increasement in children’s education as well as building healthy relations between communities with various cultures, in underdeveloped areas of Indonesia. Travel Sparks strives to give both their travelers and the communities they introduced, a memorable and bond-building experience. They want to help travelers see the beautiful things, even the small-and-secluded part of the world.

Traveling with Travel Sparks will give not only opportunities to see breathtaking landscapes but also the chance to interact with heartwarming local people, the conversations, the moments that they will all do together. They will also have the opportunity to doing volunteer activities such as dropping books for donations to building a learning center for rural villages. And their success in executing these travels had left people feeling nothing but happiness and grateful for all the things in their lives.

Although Travel Sparks is not yet capable of offering its movement globally, they are still doing an outstanding good influence from where they are. Spreading goodwill and positivity which will lead to improvements in caring among people, villages, cities, societies, and hopefully the entire world.

Business benefit

Travel Sparks’ benefit is simply satisfaction of supporting, guiding, and providing their travelers in an unforgettable holiday. Because they see happiness and exciting moments when travelers come and enjoy the programs such as, playing with kids,teaching them and sharing experiences with kids. With this satisfaction they believe they can do operation well and make travelers feel deeper about how happy children with books and travelers visit in their village. In this point, Travel Sparks see this as a benefit point for the company. “Our satisfaction is happiness expression of traveler to get an amazing experience with kids,” said Nena, Business Development Associate of Travel Sparks.

Social and environmental benefit

Travel Sparks allows travelers the opportunity of teaching the children who living in hinterland. The teaching is among other things, like increasing the general and extensive knowledge through sharing stories and experiences with one another. As well, travelers can give guidance to them such as writing and reading training. In addition, children get donations from travelers in the form of books that will become a collection at Taman Bacaan Pelangi. Traveler also can train the librarians at Taman Bacaan Pelangi. In other words, Travel Sparks provides an experience for the traveler in improving Education to society at the certain areas (SDG: 4. Quality of Education).

Travels Sparks benefits society by providing people the opportunity of a memorable and meaningful holiday experience that would also give positive impacts to the community they visit. The experience that Travel Sparks offers is a two-way street, the community that was visited will gain a better understanding of the world outside of theirs, while the travelers themselves will gain much more than just a “passing-by” holiday experience, they will get to learn and understand the culture that exist within those communities. A better understanding of one culture to the other, or a certain point of view of the world to another, will enhance the sustainability of it all (SDG: 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities).

Interview

Snezana Swasti, Business Development Associate