WiT MEETING IN CANNES BRINGS TOTAL RAISED FOR ‘A DROP OF LIFE’ TO HKD390,000 (€37,000)

The Women in Travel meeting in Cannes on Tuesday 22^nd October, brought the WiTs very close to achieving their target of HK$520,000 to build a dam to bring clean water supplies to a thousand people in a remote region of China.

The prize draw and silent auction raised just over €8,000 thanks to the great generosity of exhibitors and retailers who participated and donated superb prizes for the draw, and DFS, Furla, Bally, Bacardi, Moet Hennessy and La Prairie, whose items went into a silent auction.

This sum was boosted by an incredibly generous donation from The Edrington Group of HK$100,000 (€9,370), presented at the event by Ryan Hill , bringing the total raised at the event to €17,500. Money is still to come in from the auction of a bottle of rare Baron Otard ‘Fortis et Fidelis’ cognac kindly offered by Bacardi.

“As usual we had a fantastic turnout of women from across the industry at our event, with many new faces, and their efforts in working so hard to sell entries into the prize draw were pivotal in raising this extraordinary sum ,” says WiT member and supporter Gerry Munday. “Catherine Bonelli was our star fundraiser and in addition, there are many others we would like to thank: Rob Grossman and his team from Questexhibits for their invaluable help in collecting and delivering the prizes and supplying the champagne flutes, Follador for the Prosecco served at the event, Rowena at Essential Communications and the trade media for raising awareness of the project, and TFWA – particularly Marissa Phanivong.”

“The biggest thank you, however, must go to everyone in the travel retail industry who made donations, bought prize draw entries and bid in the silent auction”, says WiT founder Sarah Branquinho: “Year after year we ask the industry to dig deep into their pockets for various charities and year after year they do. “

The last word goes to Tina Tam, who proposed ‘A Drop of Life’ as this year’s WiT charity: “In less than 6 months we have raised a staggering HKD390,000, with special mention for the significant donation from King Power (Hong Kong) and I am confident that over the next couple of months we will reach the final target of HK$520,000. For these remotemmunities, water is the most precious commodity.  Each bucket of water needs to be fetched from several miles away, and all in the community are involved - children even sacrifice schooling in order to source the water needed to keep their families alive. The dam, once built, will free up children to go back to school and bring clean water to hundreds of people, improving their health and their lives immeasurably.”

Over the last year the Women in Travel group has continued to grow and WiT meetings have been held at major trade events across the globe. Providing a fantastic networking event and a great opportunity to make contacts and renew friendships, the next WiT networking meeting will be held during MEADFA in Doha. Further details will follow in due course.

For more information and to donate prizes, please contact any of the following:

Sarah Branquinho - sarah.branquinho@wdfg.com;

Gerry Munday – gerry.munday@furla.com;

Catherine Bonelli

Tina Tam – tina.tam@laprairiegroup.ch

Amanda Felix – amanda.felix@dfnionline.com

Lois Pasternak – parsnip5@aol.com

Marissa Phanivong – m.phanivong@tfwa.com

Media queries to:

Rowena Holland - row@essentialcommunications.org

Note to Editors:

A Drop of Life is an NGO in Hong Kong, which brings water and hope to remote villages in China. The Northwest part of China is one of the driest regions in the world. Annual rainfall is only about 300mm and the annual evaporation rate is as high as 1,500-2,000mm, so water is the most luxurious and precious necessity in the area.

Women in Travel (WIT) was established over 5 years ago as a forum for the women in the
travel retail industry.  It allows us a privileged medium to exchange ideas, and just as importantly to support people in need who we believe would benefit from our help. From year to year we help different groups or communities (from Haiti to India to Sichuan) to help themselves, with a strong focus on children.