International Travel and Hosting Fellowship

PICTURED: On a 2021 hike, Tracey Wyatt (right), of the Rotary Club of Wynnum and Manly, Qld, shows the Blue Mountains to Nancy Fleming, a longtime US Rotarian before her passing.

For seasoned traveller Madhumita Bishnu, of the Rotary E-Club of Melbourne, Vic, the International Travel and Hosting Fellowship turns every trip into an exciting adventure with new-found friends around the world.

By Brad Webber

Ligia Corredor, a devout globe-trotter, frequently travels solo, but she’s rarely lonely. For her, travel is first and foremost a friend-making quest. Whether she’s landing in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan or California, she can easily find someone to meet for coffee, share a meal, show her around their favourite neighbourhood or host her for a few nights at their place – even if, as is often the case, they’ve never met before.
Where does she find these instant besties? The International Travel and Hosting Fellowship (ITHF).

“First of all, being a single person and a woman, I find I feel comfortable,” says Ligia, a member of the Rotary Club of Miramar-Pines, US, talking up the benefits of the Rotary fellowship she’s been part of for more than 25 years.

It feels safe when I travel to ITHF friends” since they’re Rotary members. Best of all, it feels like family, whether she’s being hosted or hosting visitors at her home along a meandering waterway just outside the Everglades.

With 923 members from 45 countries, the travel and hosting fellowship is one of the largest within Rotary. It allows its members to enrich their travels through cross-cultural exchange by visiting local Rotary members for everything from quick meet-ups at cafes to several days in their home.

Though the fellowship was officially recognised in 1989, the idea was sparked a few years earlier. The group formed from a growing circle of connections that started with an American Rotary member and his wife, who were struck by the hospitality of Rotarians they encountered on an extended stay in Europe in 1986. When they, in turn, hosted a group of Australians who had the same interest in exchanging visits, they knew they were on to something.
“What we do is give you an opportunity to connect,” says Madhumita Bishnu, of the Rotary E-Club of Melbourne, Vic, who logs on from her home in Kolkata, India, as the fellowship’s current chair.

Members can reach out to each other through the website and arrange to connect.

“You make the connection and stay with the person or be invited to a club meeting. It could be a local sightseeing trip, a visit for a cup of tea or coffee, any kind of hosting,” Madhumita says.

PICTURED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Ligia Corredor, of the Rotary Club of Miramar-Pines, Florida, with members of the Ball Wiguna Selat Interact Club during a fellowship tour of Bali. / Fellowship members from Canada and the US enjoy a swim in Brazil. / International Travel and Hosting Fellowship Chair Madhumita Bishnu (right), of the Rotary E-Club of Melbourne, Vic, with fellowship member Tam Agosti Gisler, of the Rotary Club of Anchorage East, Alaska, at Flury’s, a 1927 Bakery in Kolkata, East India, where Madhumita lives.

Connections can involve home stays over a few days but can also be as simple as just meeting for a meal,” says Sheila Hart, president of the Rotary Club of Nelson Daybreak, Canada, and a past chair of the fellowship.

Tracey Wyatt, of the Rotary Club of Wynnum and Manly, Qld, calls the fellowship “the best-kept secret”.

“It’s far deeper and more insightful than any tourist experience,” she says. And the expert local knowledge is helpful. Tracey, for example, regularly cautions travellers not to underestimate Australia’s vastness and set unrealistic travel plans.

Rick and Mary Ellen Harned, members of the Rotary Club of Louisville, US, note that some Rotarians lack room at home to accommodate guests.

“In Japan, I would not necessarily expect home hospitality, where they just don’t have space,” says Rick, a fellowship past administrator. But a simple meet-up can be equally enriching.

For their visit to Osaka, Japan, for instance, a Rotarian-hosted walking tour and dinner at a Japanese sports bar were memorable highlights. During a visit to Germany, the wife of a Rotarian stocked their rented apartment with light victuals, and Rick delivered a presentation about Rotary life in Kentucky to the Rotary Club of Detmold-Oerlinghausen. On another trip, Australian Rotarians introduced the couple to the kangaroos romping on a friend’s property. The landowner, it turned out, was a Rotarian the Harneds had met on an earlier fellowship group tour.

The fellowship also encompasses domestic exchanges; the Harneds visit Rotarian friends in Wisconsin and enjoyed a short trip to neighbouring Tennessee in April 2024 to experience a solar eclipse with a Rotarian there.

PICTURED: RIGHT: Sheila Hart, of the Rotary Club of Nelson Daybreak, Canada, with fellowship members at Iguassu Falls during a tour of Brazil.

“We tend to do what they do in their communities,” says Mary Ellen. “In the smaller communities, you see things an average tourist wouldn’t see.”

Ligia has hosted visitors who were excited just to help tend to her garden, which is adorned with palm trees and lush greenery. On another occasion, a couple from Canada who arrived in time for a breakfast with Santa event for kids that she was attending tagged along and volunteered all day to hand out gifts. And when Ligia was staying with an Australian member near Brisbane, she went with her to check out a club project to teach teens and adults with disabilities how to sail.

I would have never seen anything like that if I had not been with Rotarians,” she says.

The fellowship also organises group tours, including excursions around the Rotary International Convention. After the convention in Singapore last May, Ligia joined a fellowship tour in Bali, Indonesia. A Rotarian there arranged for them to take a cooking class in which they even got to pick the vegetables and herbs from a garden. Another recent fellowship tour was planned for Patagonia and Antarctica. And the connections start even before the trips; members often get to know each other ahead of time through lively WhatsApp groups.

The biggest takeaway is the long-term relationships that I’ve made,” says Ligia.

“I have a lot of friends I’ve made that are not in the fellowship. But we convince them. Every time, you need to join us. It’s the camaraderie that you develop.”

For more information, visit www.ithf.org