Guest Bloggers Sought for Student Travel E-magazine

Do you have what it takes to be an InSite guest blogger?

InSite on Student Travel, the monthly e-magazine for anyone involved in the student group travel market, is seeking guest bloggers to share their opinions and expertise on all things student travel.

Launched in late 2009, InSite is distributed via email to 15,000 teachers, principals, band & choir directors and youth group leaders.  Each edition contains vibrant destination features about top domestic and international student travel locales, updates on trends and developments affecting student travel groups, special offers from student tour companies and opinion editorial.

Bloggers and student travel professionals seeking to share their knowledge, contact Managing Editor Randy Mink.

Tips for Student Travelers – How to Stay Safe While Travelling

With the student tour season kicks into high gear as students seek to broaden their horizons through travel to foreign lands and the experience of new cultures. Whether jogging on the 9^th Arrondissement of Paris or strolling around historical Mexico City, many students spend their summer immersed in educational travel while their parents sit at home, anxiously awaiting their safe return. Explorica, a company creating educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages, and people, is sharing tips for student travelers on how to stay safe while enjoying their educational experiences, and in turn, easing the minds of worried parents.

Tips for Student Travelers:

-          Before traveling, (preferably 4-6 weeks ahead) check with your doctor about being up-to-date with vaccinations and receive any treatments required for the destination of your travels.

-          Familiarize yourself with the local laws of the area where you are traveling. Nothing is worse than finding yourself in a situation where you have no idea how to react.

-          Have a valid and signed passport with you at all times. If you are asked for identification at any point, taking it everywhere prevents you from being hassled.

-          Pack as lightly as possible. It is difficult to get around easily and enjoy your freedom with a heavy bag dragging you down.

-          At airports and terminals, wear your backpack on your front. While you may not look very cool, at least you won’t leave yourself open to pickpockets!

-          Do not carry large sums of money with you. Carry only what you think you will need in case of theft, and go to an ATM or bank when you need more.

-          Stay in groups. The bigger the better. That way, you are less of a target and if you get lost, at least you aren’t alone.

Tips for Parents of Student Travelers:

-          Check with your insurance company to make sure your student is covered in the country they are visiting. If they are not, find a plan that does!

-          If your student is traveling to a place where they don’t know the native language, help them learn key phrases, such as asking for a bathroom, directions or the police.

-          Know every detail possible about your child’s trip. If there is an itinerary, be sure to keep a copy for yourself.

-          Take down all emergency contact information from trip leaders and give the trip coordinator your contact information at any time of day.

-          Create a chain of communication with other parents who have students in the group. If all the parents needed to be informed to anything while their students are away, the chain will make sure that no parent is left out of the loop.

Explorica considers the safety of student travelers to be the highest priority. From performing rigorous safety checks, to providing both constant on-tour safety expertise and immediate on-site assistance, the safety of our student travelers is our primary concern. Steps taken to assure student safety include:

-                      24/7 in-house emergency service line.  No outsourcing to an answering service.

-                      Criminal background checks on Tour Directors

-                      Rigorous safety and security training for Tour Directors

-                      First Aid training for Tour Directors

-                      Regular and thorough hotel safety and security inspections

Whichever student tour company you use for student travel, use the above checklist to ensure all necessary safety measures are enacted.

Managing Group Airfare for Student Trips

Arranging group airfare for student trips can be complex, but worth the effort

Organizing a student trip involving air flights will give you some additional flexibility in planning your group trip. In order to qualify as a ‘group’ you need to have 10-12 passengers willing to fly on the exact same flights.

The major benefit of a student travel group air bookings is that you are guaranteeing all participants will be paying the same fare, and getting the same flights. It also makes your destination logistics much easier to plan! Groups pay a deposit of $50-$100.00 per seat held, at the time of booking. Once a deposit is paid, groups are generally allowed 10% reduction in size, without penalty by the airline. Additionally, groups are not required to submit names and the balance until 35-45 days before departure. If you have your group participants book individual tickets, there are no guarantees on pricing and availability. Individual tickets need instant purchase and immediate, full payments, and are usually very restrictive.

As the airlines continue to add and increase their ancillary fees, it is important to work with your travel agent, or the airline, to determine what is actually included in your ticket price. Common questions include:

• How much are the fuel surcharges, and do they guarantee them?

• Do they charge baggage fees? In most cases, additional fees are dependent on the date of ticketing, and not when the group was originally booked.

Even if you book your group 11 months in advance, the airline does not consider your ticket ‘purchased’ until tickets are issued at 35-45 days before departure. As such, you are responsible to pay any fees in effect when the tickets are issued. It is important for every group leader to prepare their group for the possibility of fees changing before tickets are issued.

It has become more important than ever to make sure your group participants have student travel insurance to cover them in emergency situations. Almost all travel policies cover medical emergencies and offer some level of trip delay and baggage protection. However, there are a wide range of policies on the market. Policies range from simple flight protection, to large, comprehensive group policies, designed to cover every participant and aspect of your trip. We all hope our trip will be perfect, but travel insurance gives that extra layer of protection in case something does go wrong.

Written by Eric Howard, Manager Group Sales @ www.StudentUniverse.com

Webinar on How to Sell and Market Student Travel

Travel professionals can tap into the growing student travel market with the new Student Discoveries programs from the Globus family of brands.

Combining the Globus family of brands’ expertise with input from educators, Globus has introduced Student Discoveries, an alternative to traditional educational travel options. These student vacations are 100% influenced by educators and infused with “Discovery Moments” that can be easily tailored to the classroom curriculum.

A new webinar titled How to Sell in Market Student Travel is available free of charge by clicking on the following link.

Extra! Extra! Newport News Announces New Student Attraction

The City of Newport News, Virginia issued the following press release this past week, highlighting a new student geared attraction:

TUI Travel Raises $800 Million for Aquisitions

Europe’s biggest travel firm TUI Travel (TT.L), which recently went on a shopping spree in the U.S. grabbing up student tour operators stateside,  said it planned to raise $802 million to fund acquisitions through the issue of a convertible bond and new banking facilities.

The group added trading was in line with guidance given on Mar. 24, when it reported strong sales trends, and it remained well positioned to meet expectations for underlying operating profit for the year to Sept. 30.

That is despite the impact from the closure of much of northern Europe’s airspace because of a huge ash cloud following the eruption of an Icelandic volcano. [ID:nLDE63I2FA]

The group, in which Germany’s TUI AG (TUIGn.DE) has a controlling stake of 54.9 percent, said on Tuesday the fund-raising would ensure it was well placed to exploit a strong pipeline of opportunities.

“They’ve raised significant firepower,” said KBC Peel Hunt analyst Nick Batram. “They had been questioned about whether they had enough headroom to make reasonable acquisitions and this addresses that.”

TUI Travel said it was looking to expand in emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and Russia, and buy high margin businesses in specialist sectors such as the UK student segment and global cruise destination services.

Recession-Proof: How Student Travel Trumps the Economic Slump

The U.S. recession officially started in December of 2007 but the strongest effects were not felt throughout the country until mid-to-late 2008. Every major industry took a hard economic hit, and the employment rate across the country was at an all-time low. In 2009, industries in all categories were still reporting record losses. An exception was student travel.

In March 2010, the Youth Travel Industry Monitor reported that figures for the youth travel industry were down a mere 0.3% at the close of 2009. This is in sharp contrast to the staggering 4% loss that the mainstream travel industry suffered as a whole. As a sense of consumer confidence begins to be felt around the market, WYSE officials are anticipating a steady rise in the rate of student travel and in 2010, hopes are high for a significant increase in figures.

The seemingly “recession-resistant” nature of student and youth travel has caught the eye of tourism bureaus around the globe, prompting targeted marketing campaigns as well as a slew of new discounts for student travelers.

One reason that student travel has maintained such a steadfast presence in the industry is the attributes it lends to a recent graduate’s resume when entering the job market. With the market slowly beginning to recover, there are exponentially more applicants for entry-level positions than there are positions available. With only 4% of U.S. undergraduates acquiring the experience of traveling abroad,  a student travel experience can help a recent graduate stand out from the crowd of other applicants all clamoring for the same opportunity.

Many employers value global travel experiences as an added skill in the workplace. The amount of preparation, combined with the attention to detail it takes to coordinate an international student trip are qualities that employers often look for in an applicant. In addition to the demonstration of maturity and organizational qualities shown by the preparation for the trip, the fact that a student was able to successfully navigate a foreign culture and gained enough mastery of a second language to be able to get around for a length of time will also serve to impress prospective employers. Any type of specialized or volunteer work done on student trips is often seen as an added bonus, as it demonstrates the student’s ability to work within an organization to complete a task.

With the many apparent benefits of a student travel experience, coupled with  a sense of economic optimism beginning to be felt in the market, 2010 is anticipated to be a big year for student travel.

Student Tour Company Adds Chat Feature

Travel Adventures, a leading student tour company has added a Live Chat feature to their company website to enhance communications and improve customer service.

The Live Chat service is designed to allow their customers the opportunity to “chat” with a Customer Service Representatives, Accounting Representative or a Tour Consultant in real time. This feature will provide teachers, trip participants and vendors the opportunity to receive personal service and quick answers to their questions and is available during normal business hours.

“The introduction of Live Chat to our website provides an efficient and personal way of reaching out to our customers. We can now provide tour information and customer assistance in real time to all of our site’s visitors. This new service is designed to improve our user’s experience by providing them with personal attention,” said John Urogdy Director of Marketing for Travel Adventures.

As an additional resource for educators, Travel Adventures has launched an informational blog. The blog will provide customers with student travel suggestions, trip planning tips, and destination news. Blogs will be posted periodically and a unique “Wordless Wednesday” posting will feature a photo from a popular Travel Adventures program or destination. The blog will provide the first time traveler as well as the seasoned trip sponsor with valuable tips and destination highlights.

These two new features combined with Travel Adventures existing Facebook and Twitter pages continues the company’s commitment to provide their customers with impeccable customer service and valuable content for educators.

This comprehensive online communications strategy capitalizes on the latest means of communicating and sharing information over the web by allowing prospective and current customers to interact through their computer or mobile phone.

About Travel Adventures

Travel Adventures is a member of the TUI Travel® Group of Companies. A student tour provider staffed by educators and travel professionals, Travel Adventures understands the needs of teachers. It has served over one half million students since 1987 and its mission is to empower teachers to Create a Bigger World for Every Student. To discover more about Travel Adventures and its many educational programs, please visit http://www.traveladventures.com.

Apples to Apples: One Washington State College’s Spring Break New York Visit is a Lesson in Value

For the past 19 years theater professor Brian Tyrell of Washington State’s Centralia College has orchestrated the annual student spring break trip to New York City. Due to a radical approach to planning the trip that cuts the cost to students nearly in half, Tyrell this year will be taking 35 students, his largest group ever.
Tyrell had previously booked the five-day, four-night trip through a student geared travel agency, American Student Travel. According to Professor Tyrell, the package seemed the best route for student travelers because “It included airfare, lodging, three tickets to Broadway shows, transportation, everything but souvenirs.”
However, each year that passed prompted a rate hike for the travel package. By the sixth annual trip, the price climbed to $2,000 per student, and Tyrell saw the number of participating students diminish from 24 the first year to six students, three years later.
The steady decline in attendance by students prompted Tyrell to take a new approach to organizing the trip. Instead of using American Student Travel’s pre-planned package, Tyrell opted instead to build his own. This “a la carte” approach to a school trip, which includes the cost of airfare and accommodations only, presents the students with a lower upfront cost and allows them greater freedom to explore the “Big Apple” in their own way. As a result, the number of participating students has skyrocketed.
According to Tyrell, “That’s why our numbers have increased, because it’s affordable. Every moment was planned with American Student Travel. There are things we don’t do anymore unless someone chooses to; I’d rather save you some money than charge you the price of going to school for two quarters.”
With the economy still on the rebound, more and more schools are examining student travel programs and ways to cut costs. Professor Tyrell’s unique approach may blaze the trail for more affordable student travel options in the future.

Recent Violence in Mexico Prompts Spring Break Tourist Decline

The idyllic sandy beaches, tropical sun, and colorful culture of Mexico have made the country a dominating force on spring break travel destination Top Ten lists. However, due to a turbulent 2009, Mexico is seeing significant drops in tourism numbers for the first time in decades. In fact, the student travel agency STA has reported that a mere 10% of student travelers plan to make Mexico their spring break destination this year, a drastic decline from years past.
Mexico’s northern regions have been long been the setting for turf wars between gangs and drug traffickers, but this year the violence has escalated dramatically. Earlier this month, the violent killings of more than a dozen people in Ciudad Juarez including three with connections to the American Consulate, have prompted various U.S. agencies to issue travel warnings to prospective spring breakers.
The Texas Department of Public Safety warns students to avoid Northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros, since these areas show the highest concentration of violent activity. The three most popular tourist destinations, (Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Cozumel) are still considered safe by most agencies. The U.S. State Department has not issued any statements to deter student travel to Mexico, but urges prospective travelers to exercise caution and recommends the following guidelines while visiting:
•    -Travel during the day and stick to main roads
•    -Leave your itinerary with someone who is not traveling with you
•    -Stay out of known dangerous areas
•    -Do not show expensive jewelry or money
•    -Make sure that your cell phone provider has working coverage in Mexico

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