A number of travel companies are offering globetrotters increasingly innovative ways to support a charitable cause while seeing the world.

Last month, United Airlines announced that MileagePlus members will be able to redeem miles for offsets to cover carbon emissions associated with their air travel, a first among U.S. airlines, the carrier said. And Room Key, a hotel search engine created by six major hotel companies, launched a Stay the Night, Join the Fight campaign with Stand Up To Cancer to raise a minimum of $3 million. For every hotel stay reserved through Roomkey.com, $1 will be donated to cancer research.

What we now know as cause marketing has bloomed, said Henry H. Harteveldt, travel industry analyst and founder of the Atmosphere Research Group, a market research company. The merging of travel and philanthropy began to take off in the 1980s, and today many companies hotels, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators do a very good job, he said, from sponsoring high-profile fundraisers to engaging staff and customers in efforts to support charitable causes.

Airlines and hotels can mobilize quickly in areas where tragedies strike like after hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and in Japan after the tsunami by flying in supplies, relief workers and volunteers or providing emergency housing. And traveling offers some unique opportunities to do good. Travel technology company Sabre Holdings, for example, advises travelers to be on the lookout for human trafficking activity through its Passport to Freedom program.

Other philanthropic trends have recently emerged, like "volunteer tourism" or "voluntourism."

Many travelers want to understand a destination in a deeper way, and volunteering is an opportunity to connect in a substantive manner. Its not just about having a great meal or taking a great picture, Harteveldt said. Travelers also want to have an opportunity to give back and create a meaningful, more authentic experience.

Some are frequent volunteers, like Karin Fetherston, a 67-year-old retired medical investigator from Piedmont, California. Its really nice to have a reason to visit a place, said Fetherston, who has participated in 18 programs since 2009, mostly organized by Road Scholar, a nonprofit group formerly known as Elderhostel and Earthwatch. I love to learn things. You generally do something much more intensely when you do service learning, and your experience is more in-depth."

Fetherstons experiences have ranged from teaching English to children in Cambodia and delivering over-the-counter medical supplies in Cuba to digging for mammoth bones in South Dakota. At the end of May, Fetherston will head to San Remo, Italy, to assist with a scientific whale survey. Everything Ive done has been fascinating, she said.

An online survey of 5,000 U.S. leisure travelers conducted in the first quarter of 2014 by Harteveldts firm, not yet released, indicated that nearly 9 percent said they engaged in some volunteer community service work while on a trip within the past 12 months.

"Many travelers want to understand a destination in a deeper way, and volunteering is an opportunity to connect in a substantive manner. Its not just about having a great meal or taking a great picture."

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Travelers Inspired to Do Good While Seeing the World