My Story

Intro

For some tourism means just physical movement from one place to the next. Fpor the others tourism means a shift from one mindset to another, they see travel as an exercise of socio-economic power. Clare believes in the second meaning that insightful travel can develop social responsibility and experiential concern for communities, cultural heritage, and the environment among the young people of the Philippinies.

About Me

Travel has been one of the greatest teachers for me and it has become a goal for me to try to encourage people to travel to learn more about themselves and the world. Travel changes you, it humbles you, and at the same time it lets you experience your own greatness as well as of others'. We built Youth Trip Philippines with the framework that traveling would enable us to become better citizens through responsible travel, appreciation for our natural and cultural heritage, and sustainable tourism.

I write on the side, am an amateur photographer, I love the city of Manila, and I have a dog named Chicken.

My Venture

YTRIP is a passionate group of young people who love to travel and who love the Philippines deeply. It's a volunteer-based advocacy with a goal of promoting sustainable local tourism and responsible, insightful travel to develop social responsibility and experiential concern for communities, cultural heritage, and the environment. Our message is "Kilalanin ang Pilipinas. Kilalanin ang Sarili" (Get to know your country, the Philippines. Discover who you are), promoting the values of ownership, respect, love, and care. We believe that the best way to experience the greatness of oneself and of a people is when one is "out there".

YTRIP began as an education platform and an attempt at becoming a social enterprise. Our main projects involved marketing and organizing tours (with tour operators as partners), organizing learning sessions and talks, organizing field trips for the less fortunate, and other activities that involved bridging experts and luminaries with regular people and students.

Last year, we decided to focus on educating the traveler by providing events where they would learn in a more direct way. Considering that we do not have a full time staff and no capital for a social enterprise, we then focused our energies on organizing learning sessions which we called “Backpacking Pilipinas” and “Destination: PiliPinas”. Both are held monthly (for free) in two different locations, attended by young professionals and students. We usually provide lectures on self-defense, backpacking 101, featured destinations, Philippine culture, and travel story-telling.