Fairmont Hotels Inspired to Give Back by Ken Burns' New Documentary

September 28, 2009 at 2:50 PM | by Heidi Atwal | 0 Comments

The Fairmont San Francisco jumps on the state park philanthropy bandwagon, details below

If you've ever seen any portion of the sweeping TV-documentary The Civil War, then you know who Ken Burns is. The PBS mainstay has been producing and directing films for the network for a quarter century about everything from the Statue of Liberty to architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

When Burns speaks, PBS-o-philes listen, and he's not one to shy away from advocating causes close to his heart. His latest documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea (how's that for a bold statement?) recently premiered on PBS; it takes a look at famous outdoor landmarks like The Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone, and the "people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved."

That's all well and good, but what exactly does it have to do with hotels? The Fairmont has jumped on the Ken Burns bandwagon, promoting park and nature-related packages and making charitable gestures in the spirit of PBS' giving filmmaker. Hey, if The Fairmont Newport Beach can push an Orange County, naturalist-led "Gold Coast" tour and donate 10 percent of proceeds to the California Commission at the same time, why not?

Other marketing-meets-philanthropy packages include a "Great Green Getaway" at The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, where you'll get a $100 credit for daily activities and have $25 donated in your name to the UNESCO World Heritage Alliance (rates start at $349/night through December 22nd, 2009); a "Green Adventure" at The Fairmont Mayakoba in the Riveria Maya, which includes an ecological tour of the area's lagoons, daily breakfast, and a donation in your name to Adopt-a-Tree (rates start at $598 for two nights through December 18th, 2009); and a very pun-ny "Navi-Gator" tour courtesy of The Fairmont Turnberry Isle in Florida, which includes, as you might guess, a tour of the gator-happy Everglades with a naturalist guide and a donation to the Everglades' Restoration Fund (rates start at $769 for two nights through December 18th).

The Plaza and Qu�bec�s Fairmont Le Ch�teau Montebello offer similar packages (though the latter's promo won't start until 2010), and through November 30th, guests at Fairmont's California hotels can donate $1 per night of their stay to nature-friendly organizations Tourism Cares and the California Save Our Parks Campaign. With recent news of budget cuts threatening California's state parks, this couldn't have come at a better time.

They say you can't see the forest for the trees, but this hotel news makes us think it's the opposite. Contact each hotel directly for more details.

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