By Denton Josey, Student Reporter
This spring Abilene Public Radio KACU will travel to Europe for an eight-day tour of southern Italy. For two weeks, KACU has promoted the trip on the air and has received many calls from interested listeners, KACU development director Loree Houghton said.
“It’s our attempt to touch the world and other cultures and to inform the Abilene community,” Houghton said.
Houghton, along with Terri Peterson, membership director and business manager, and John Burt, general manager and program director, got the idea for the trip from a National Public Radio conference in Los Angeles.
The travel company KACU is using, Cross-Cultural Journeys, introduced KACU to the idea of travel tours as fundraisers, so a portion of each traveler’s fee will go to KACU.
Included in the $3,495 cost is airfare, ground transportation, two meals a day and a guided tour with a bilingual guide.
“With a guide, you get so much more out of it when you understand what you are seeing,” Houghton said.
The trip is designed to give the tourists time on their own as well, so the schedule is not too crowded with things to do.
“Each day something is planned, but you don’t have to do it,” Peterson said. “Depending on what it is, you’re finished by 2 or 3 p.m. and then you have the rest of the day off.”
The trip, which is planned for May 22-30, takes participants on a guided tour that will include visits to Naples, the Isle of Capri, Pompei, Herculaneum and several cities along the Amalfi Coast.
Peterson, the trip coordinator, said the price for the trip is comparable to one that could be found with a travel agency.
“It’s actually really close,” Peterson said. “We’ve had several people tell us that it is really close. We are getting a group rate.”
Entertainment will include visits to an Italian opera, a mozzarella cheese farm and the ruins left by Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Houghton said that the opera is not included in the price of the trip, nor is it a mandatory stop.
“Opera is optional because some people have really strong opinions, both positively and negatively,” Houghton said.
One of the experiences Peterson said he is most excited about is the opportunity to eat a meal with an Italian family in their home.
“It’d be unusual in Abilene, for an Italian family to just come over and eat,” Peterson said. “But it’s not unusual in Italy.”
Travelers also have the option of extending the trip three days to include a visit to Rome for a tour of the Vatican and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. The cost for the additional travel is $595.
What makes the trip unique to regular travel agency packages is the group that is going.
“The difference is you are going with people from Abilene and NPR listeners,” Houghton said. “So you maybe have a common demographic.”
Twenty spaces are currently available. At least 10 people are needed for the trip to take place, but 16 is the ideal amount, Houghton said.
A discounted pre-registration period ends Feb. 28, but people are still encouraged to sign up after that.
Houghton said based on the success of this year’s trip, KACU might like to take more trips in the future.
