Brightspark Travel, Latest Innovator in Student Travel

What do you get when you join the forces of Educational Tours, National Events, New Horizons and Travel Adventures—four leading U.S. student travel companies—under one emblematic umbrella? You get Brightspark Travel, a full-service student tour operator that is consumed with its clients’ 100 percent satisfaction.

The team at Brightspark Travel was able to successfully unite these different corporate cultures and products under one brand and continue to make educational student group travel straightforward and effortless. Based in Deerfield, Ill., the company was organized a year ago.

Suzanne Pacy, director of sales and product marketing, said that a lot of research was done prior to the launching of Brightspark, and the brand is growing.

“It’s a transition for everyone with the company,” Pacy said. “And we are really beginning to see some traction with the launch of our new website and email campaigns. It looks different than anything else that’s out there in the marketplace.”

A Promise for Brightspark Clients

Pacy stressed that throughout the research done in the rebranding process the company addressed teachers’ concerns and needs in regard to organizing student travel.

“As a travel provider we identified that the teachers really just need help,” Pacy said. “Organizing a school trip shouldn’t be a lot of extra work for them and the school, and we should aim to simplify student travel for them. They need the process to be simple and easy.”

And simple and easy is what Brightspark ensures its clients, loud and clear, as stated in the “Our Promise” section on their website. It emphasizes the level of service they provide and “what we will go out of our way to do for our clients,” Pacy said.

The promise includes assuring clients they are not responsible for costs on weather delays, medical and liability insurance, refund guarantee for when plans change, 24-hour student security and more.

What It’s All About

Brightspark Travel has more than 100 years of integrated travel experience, which gives the company a boost over much of its competition. Pacy explained that Brightspark works with three major areas of student travel – educational travel, performance travel and a travel division for events.

The educational travels are historic, geographic or science-based tours, marketed primarily toward middle schools; performance travel allows music students to compete in festivals and perform across the country; and the events division offers trips to such events as the Outback Bowl in Tampa and Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta.

Business is picking up for Brightspark this year, and its traditional travel destinations are holding strong, Pacy added. The company sends a lot of groups to Washington D.C., is seeing continued interest in Europe (for both educational and performance opportunities) and sends many groups to Disney because of Brightspark’s strong ties with the company. Brightspark is one of the top providers of Disney Performing Arts Programs at both Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California.

Pacy said perfection is what Brightspark aims for when planning a successful tour, recognizing there are a lot of moving parts that make up a trip and a number of people that play a role in it. And it is apparent that every aspect of the team at Brightspark embodies a specialty of some kind– musician specialists, college bowl game operators, airline and hotel industry professionals and even Walt Disney production specialists. The training of its tour directors is quite extensive so as to offer clients the highest quality on site with the students.

“We want every booking to fall in line with the flow of the itineraries,” Pacy said. “The flow of the itinerary is really important for students, to keep them busy and moving at a fairly quick pace but with enough time for them to sit back and learn what they are there to learn about.”

—Nancy Wolens

For more information, call Brightspark Travel at 877-545-0070, or visit brightsparktravel.com.