We raised the question of ‘Gender’ before. Over coffee break sometimes when girls talk about their personal experiences with working and thinking through what they can achieve as women, it makes me wonder, just when gender as a conversation point, will stop showing up. Being questioned and even told that ‘you are not the right gender‘ is not as uncommon as we thought.
In fact lately, I was having dinner, when a young man, well-educated and in his 30s, talked about girls being genetically attracted to ‘dolls’ and ‘pink’ as opposed to ‘cars’ and ‘blue’. At that moment, I argued saying that’s just how it’s been marketed. But at the end of the day, my heart sank a little with the thought that, we still tend to associate girls with certain roles and preferences.
It’s not something that I expect will be solved in a few days, however, as a woman ambitious about my career, all my senses are peaked when I see hope coming in from different quarters. Especially when coming from women in management jobs who have gone ahead and smashed the glass ceilings and gone past whatever roles were being genetically associated with them.
I was able to connect with a real life ‘Entrepreneur’ barbie in Rita Marques, founder and CEO of Portugal based ImpacTrip, a unique travel company. A few questions followed, and needless to say, she blew me away with her optimistic approach and the passion that laces her work.
There is an increasing push and conversation around women entrepreneurs. And yet, what are the challenges that women still struggle with?
Rita: Women have always been good at finding solutions but external conditions always limited the possibility of using that capacity to business. Now, finally, we in a entrepreneurial boom and surprise: now it is not only for men.
In my personal and European view, I don’t see any additional difficulty for women to build their project and be successful. I think it might be much more difficult to climb up inside a big company because everyone who is already there is male. Today, women have the same opportunities, resources and obstacles men have. Gender really doesn’t play a role.
I have never felt that being a women have somehow being an obstacle. The age seems to me that is a much bigger difficulty.
What was your key inspiration in starting something so unique & new?
Rita: The idea just happened naturally. I was traveling on my own through Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and met people who wanted to travel like me, not just checking Top 10 lists of cities or simply visiting a place by bus but, instead, meeting the locals, absorbing the culture and leaving a positive mark wherever we would go.
Volunteering seemed to be the path to go but it was really difficult to differentiate the only-for-profit-and-fake volunteer work to attract tourists from the really meaningful and impactful work that would benefit communities. After the trip, I realized volunteer tourism had the potential to give a great contribution to the places receiving tourists but was not properly organized. Then I realized I wanted to organize different trips that make a difference. And that was the beginning of a project that later became ImpacTrip.
Today ImpacTrip is a social enterprise starting to get noticed by the international community of travelers who look for alternatives to travel in a more responsible way. Dive to clean the Atlantic Ocean, sail along the Algarve Southern coast to help institutionalized children, visit Lisbon guided by a knowledgeable homeless individual or relax in a fairy tale-like rural village while supporting disabled people in their therapies: these are only some examples of the volunteer tourism experiences impacTrip offers.
ImpacTrip is a socially-driven travel agency that fights social inequality through Volunteer tourism in Portugal. Our mission is to provide a meaningful and unforgettable travel experience that allows the traveler to know the Real Portugal and has a positive social impact on the places they visit. We want to change the way people travel.
After the 2008 many south European countries & others have been losing jobs. In the UK & US this has meant that self-employment is on the rise… is that the scene you also see in Portugal?
Rita: Definitely. The Portuguese startup scene is definitely booming now. Young people that didn’t find the right job for them just decided that they could do better than accepting that proposal that would make them totally unhappy. We have seen the rise of some important incubators, investment programs and many other resources as people understand the value of innovation.
The same stands for social innovation. In my case, for example, my startup, impacTrip was accepted in a social incubator and next month we will get training and access to a lot of great resources and specialists to help building new social organizations. They see the social value created by sustainable enterprises and want to help scale it up. In the case of impacTrip, volunteer tourism has helped several NGOs with qualified volunteers to contribute to their mission.
I heard someone saying “if you come and visit you will fall in love with Lisbon and not want to leave”. Well, if you want to stay and work in Lisbon you should read this carefully.
Rita: I can actually see the results of my work on other people’s lives. The passion comes from not being another wheel in a big rusty machine but an innovator that can have a positive impact on real people.
As a first time entrepreneur it has been quite a journey and I am just starting. Everyday it’s completely different and I have to make things happen, things don’t just come to me. I love that challenge… Not knowing how my next month schedule will be, the people I will meet, the new programs we will create. It’s all ready to be built and we can build it the way we want (while listening carefully to the market).
As a social entrepreneur, I think it is even more interesting because we have a broader set of stakeholders to listen and respond to. We don’t just want to make money, we want to promote volunteering, we support NGOs social missions and help them being more efficient, we collaborate with other alternative and ecological touristic partners and, above all, we have to have a social and environmental positive impact. While making Money of course. That’s another challenge that keeps me passionate about what I do.
Finally but not less important, being a founder of a volunteer tourism travel agency allows me to combine my true and biggest passions: travelling and volunteering. Transforming your hobbies into your job and allowing more people to experience it, gives me motivation to do all I do.
I’d like to thank Rita for sharing her ideas with us. Set role or not, I am personally ready to get onto my personal orange cycle of optimism and creativity. There are no excuses. Where’s that new business plan now? 🙂
