First ever travel lottery launches website
Fundraising initiative The Travel Lottery has launched a website allowing customers to buy tickets for its monthly cash-prize draws.
Customers can buy tickets on www.thetravellottery.co.uk for a single draw, or they can sign up to play regularly. Each ticket costs £2.
The lottery, the first of its kind for the travel industry, has been set up to raise funds to protect and invest in communities and natural environments in popular holiday destinations, from Cyprus to St Lucia and from Turkey to Thailand.
Tickets are now on sale are for a draw on March 31, giving customers a chance to win up to £5,000 and, at the same time, support good causes in holiday destinations around the world.
Every month, one person will win at least £1,000 cash.
Midcounties Cooperative Travel and Holiday Extras are launch partners for the lottery, which was set up last September.
Organisers, the UK charity The Travel Foundation, hope there will be at least 20 firms either directing customers to the website or selling tickets directly at the point of booking by the end of 2014.
The aim is to sell at least 100,000 tickets and raise more than £50,000 for good causes in the first year.
The Travel Lottery also creates a new revenue stream for the UK travel industry. Those who direct customers to the website or sell tickets directly can earn up to 20p per ticket sold.
At least 50p from each ticket sold will go directly to support charitable projects run by the Travel Foundation, with a further 50p contributing to the prize fund.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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