Cathay Pacific sends 51 students on Educational Safari

Cathay Pacific Airways today sent 51 youngsters from around the region on its 11-day Wilderness Experience 2005 educational safari to South Africa.

This trip of a lifetime, from 26 July to 5 August 2005, will take in the 10,000-hectare Entabeni Game Reserve - home to elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo and leopard as well as more than 80 other species of mammals and 380 species of birds. 

This is the airline’s eleventh Wilderness Experience. Co-organised with The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, its aim is to educate young people about key ecological issues and promote cross-cultural understanding among people taking part from around the world.

Participants, aged 16 to 18 years, will for the first time also participate in a community service project in South Africa, painting a school. Since its inception in 1994, more than 500 students have taken part in the Cathay Pacific International Wilderness Experience programme.

Some 41 young people from 17 cities served by Cathay Pacific in the Asia Pacific region departed Hong Kong International Airport on Cathay Pacific’s daily non-stop service to Johannesburg. They come from Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, India, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, New Zealand, Bahrain, and Pakistan. They will be joined by 10 others from South Africa. Cathay Pacific is covering most trip costs.

Cathay Pacific General Manager Corporate Communication Alan Wong said, “Broadening horizons and presenting new challenges to young people are key to Cathay Pacific’s community service programmes. The Wilderness Experience has been tremendously successful in exposing young people to new ideas and making them ambassadors in their home countries for cultural understanding and environmental conservation. We hope every one of the 51 people taking part has a memorable and worthwhile time.”

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, Cathay Pacific