‘World’s first political travel firm’ launched

‘World’s first political travel firm’ launched

7 February 2018

A LOCAL councillor has launched a new company which is being hailed as a world’s first.

Patrick Brown is behind Politrip, described as the “world’s first political travel company” providing volunteering trips on international political campaigns.

The Alliance man revealed he was thinking about a few different ideas for a new project and thought the best business idea would be one that combined the two things he enjoys most, politics and travelling. 

“I looked to see if there was such a thing as a political travel company and couldn’t find anything anywhere, so I founded Politrip,” he said.

“The main inspiration for the new business concept was my time spent as a volunteer on Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign in Miami. I got signed up to volunteer through a friend of a friend and organised my own travel, accommodation and everything else to get out there and campaign.”

Describing the trip as a “fantastic experience,” Cllr Brown said he was amazed at how many people from various parts of the world had travelled to the United States to get involved.

“There were people from Finland, Ireland, the UK and Norway and I thought there must be a way to offer this as a formal programme, accessible to anyone wishing to gain experience on an international campaign, whilst also travelling and experiencing new places at the same time,” he continued.

Mr Brown is running the company in partnership 

with Gordon Kerswell-Reid, who was Executive Director of ’45 for the 45th,’ a non-profit project which took 45 young people to campaign in the 2016 US election.

Both men say they are passionate about politics and engaging young people in the political process.

Mr Brown continued: “I have always known about ‘voluntourism’ type projects where young people pay to carry out voluntary work in developing countries. 

“This is a similar concept, but for those interested specifically in political campaigns. Like these trips, volunteers pay a fee to take part and must cover their own travel costs, but we feel the price is very reasonable compared to other international programmes.”

Anyone interested in taking part in Politrip 2018 should visit www.politrip.orgl Applications to take part in the forthcoming US Mid-Term election campaign are now open. A limited number of places are available and applications must be submitted by March 5.