Would you pay for a stranger to go on holiday?
Believe it or not, but there’s a steady stream of Gen Z-ers getting people they don’t know to pay for their holidays, says Eleanor Steafel
What kind of person would dare ask perfect strangers to pay for their summer holiday? Plenty, it seems. Take Catalin Onc and Elena Engelhardt, a twentysomething German couple who, as their Instagram profile would have it, see themselves as “lovers, travellers, dream chasers”. They forgot to mention “shameless freebie-hunters”.
For this week, the GoFundMe page set up by the social media influencers to crowdsource their once-in-alifetime dream holiday went viral.
Their plea for funds (€10,000, to be precise) makes for eye-watering reading. “Starting on the 20th of July in the middle of Germany, on a tandem, me and Eli will cycle towards Africa, and hopefully beyond,” writes Onc, who is heavily tattooed, with a dripping tear from his left eye and the slogan “Never get caught in the system” across his right thigh. “We want to take you all on this huge adventure. A celebration of life, as we ride freely across mountains, by the sea and through metropolitans [sic]. We will show the beauty of this planet and it’s [sic] inhabitants, but also the ugliness.”
They propose to “take us all” with them, via their Instagram profile, of course. Something for their 46,000 followers to look forward to as they pose in infinity pools and on mountain tops during their African tour.
This isn’t a holiday, though, you must understand. This is an
inspirational mental health pilgrimage. “We could write a long text about mental health or global warming. We could tell you about following your dreams, or how important stepping out of your comfort zone is. We could tell you how beautiful travelling is, and its benefits, or the fact that most news don’t match reality. But we’re going to show you! We hope you all enjoy and learn with us. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.”
In a surprise to no one, it has all backfired spectacularly. Following widespread criticism from their followers, who accused them of freeloading and suggesting they have a word with themselves and “get a job” – “Unbelievable! Grow up, get work and save for any world tours you want to make. You are entitled, spoiled brats, the pair of you!!!” – the couple left Instagram in a huff. Though, in fairness to their extraordinarily generous community, 27 people had chipped in up to yesterday, bringing their total amount raised to €657. Not quite the €10,000 they’d envisaged, but probably enough to get them as far as Switzerland.
Half of me wishes I were as brassnecked as Cat and Eli – the bigger half thinks they should give any money they have made to charity – but, on closer inspection, it seems they are not alone in this unashamed attempt to outsource their holiday costs. As one helpful advice column states: “Being able to afford a dream vacation isn’t easy, but there are plenty of micro-funding sites out there making it easy for aspiring travellers to ask everyone, from loved ones to kind strangers on the web, for the funds to go on their trip.” There’s Fundly, which allows you to blog updates once you’re on your crowdfunded trip, where current pleas range from “We need help getting to San Antonio for a guys trip”, to a woman with a “dream to travel to Italy” (neither seem to have gained much traction yet). Fund My Travel – which seems chiefly to be made up of youngsters funding volunteering abroad projects – take a 5 per cent cut when you advertise your trip with them. Then there’s Honeyfund for Honeymoons (they take a 2.8 per cent cut if you need the cash immediately), and JustGiving (typically used for charity fundraising).
And so, it seems, misguided Onc and Engelhardt are not the only ones trying to go forth and crowdfund. Whether you want your wedding guests to chip into your honeymoon, or need help to fund a volunteering trip abroad or a charity hike, people are flocking to these sites to make their brazen pitches for holiday cash.
It seems churlish to put your boyfriend’s best mate, asking for £20 to send him up Kilimanjaro, in the same category as these so-called “dreamchasers” – when raising money for charity is involved, it doesn’t feel right somehow to be cynical. But in an era of holidays masquerading as “sponsorship challenges” and “fundraising expeditions” cleverly masking a fabulous opportunity to hike the Inca Trail or go scuba diving in coral reef with endangered seahorses, where should we, the paying public, draw the line?
In the recent past, strapped-for-cash parents used social media in attempts to crowdfund their holidays. In 2017, Nikki Smith, a healthcare assistant and mother of two from Bristol, set up a GoFundMe page, asking for £5,000 to take her and her two daughters to Disneyland. The appeal only raised £10 before she was, perhaps unfairly, branded a “scrounger”, and took it down.
As the trend for crowdfunded holidays rears its head again, a dive into the sites now reveals a steady stream of Gen Z-ers asking not for a micro-donation from a kind-hearted stranger, but for £2,000 here, £5,000 there, to send them to Malaysia for a
Cat and Eli are not alone in unashamed attempts to outsource their holiday costs
month, where they will spend a couple of days saving turtles, a few mornings cleaning beaches or “educating tourists on responsible snorkelling”, and rather a lot of time sunbathing.
I’m sure the tourists will be grateful, and the turtles’ lives #foreverchanged – but let’s not pretend that this is anything more than a good oldfashioned “gap yah”, the first half of which you probably ought to have spent putting in a few more shifts in the stockroom at H&M. Meanwhile, a British YouTuber desperate to go to a Game of Thrones convention in the US is asking her followers to donate, with the promise of live updates and “exclusive content” from the convention. Her extraordinarily generous followers have so far chipped in £1,420. Forget winter – Nashville is coming.
If ever there was a lost cause, it’s the would-be writer trying to raise £50,000 to travel around the world and report back on what they find. With a week until the fundraising deadline, our budding Bill Bryson has accrued a slightly tragic £20.
Last year, one young man managed to rake in nearly £300 of the £1,000 he needed to spend a week in the Canaries with an usual pitch on GoFundMe: he wrote that he was “‘sick of people on benefits being able to go abroad and I can’t, so can people help?” Some branded him a “parasite”, but others said “good on you” and donated a few pounds.
Come to think of it, Onc and Engelhardt have accrued around £600 in donations. Maybe they should ditch their plan to cycle on a tandem to Africa, and just do a week in Tenerife instead? Surely there they can still #makeadifference?