On Student Travel_News

12 December 2010 LeisureGroupTravel.com

Once a year, professionals in the youth, student and ed-ucational travel industry gather at the World Youth

and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) to formulatepartnerships, strengthen business relationships and discoverthe latest youth trends both globally and regionally. Thisfall's event in Beijing revealed the behavior of youth andstudent travelers today, where they’re coming from, wherethey’re headed and what industry professionals can do toconnect with them and gain their business.

YOUTH AND STUDENTS TODAYThere are 1.7 billion people on Earth today who are 15-

30 years old. In an insightful seminar entitled Global YouthTrends, WYSTC speaker John Solomon discussed this im-portant consumer group in both the context of a radicallychanging global youth population and an emerging China.Solomon predicts that in a not-too-distant future, Chinese

YOUTHon student travel � jacqueline kassteen

&STUDENT T R AV E L TRENDSI N 2011

China looms as a hot destination for students,

many of whom will enroll in study abroad programs.

Photos Courtesy of © 2010 JUPITER IMAGES Corporation

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Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, Inc., a section 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964.

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Motorcoach travelers know that Pigeon Forge is the perfect place to make

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youth will be trendsetters and influ-ence brand decisions globally.

Millennials are “the largest, mostdiverse, educated and influentialshoppers on the planet,” according toGen Buy. The more a brand fits intotheir lifestyle, the more inclined theyare to gain personal identificationwith that brand. This identity con-nection in turn means that youthtoday are extremely brand loyal.Once they find a product or servicethey like, they continue to come backto it. And for a generation born intothe social media era, they are natu-rally inclined to share their opinionswith their friends and family – nearlyevery minute of every day.

TOMORROW’S TRENDSSolomon predicts that we could

see this trend reversing. Young people

today are in a state of “hyper self-awareness” of their own emotions,thoughts, actions and desires, but intime that can become so exhaustingthat they will begin to limit the ex-tent of their openness and restricttheir social profiles to only their clos-est contacts. Quality will win out overquantity.

What does this mean for thoseof us whose customers are youthand students? Currently they can beyour biggest mouthpiece, easing thestrain on your marketing budget.But if their social circles shrink, sodoes your brand exposure; therefore,companies might also need to focusmore on the quality of their offerand rely less on simply reaching themasses.

Luckily, the youth market has ahigher lifetime value than other


on student travel �

A student trip to New York City is not

complete without a harbor cruise.

Come join us for a fun-filled experience of sandybeaches, endless shopping & dining, Broadway-style entertainment (Alabama Theatre & Carolina Opry) golf & more! For your next motor coach tour, the Fairfield Inn Myrtle Beach North is a perfect fit. We offer COMPLIMENTARY motor coach parking, a COMPLIMENTARY tour leader room, on board motorcoach greeting, welcome reception, COMPLIMENTARYbreakfast and porterage at the best available rate. A perfect location for value conscious travelers. Reserve your tour group today! Please call 843-361-8000 or email the Sales Department [email protected], or visit our website at www.marriott.com/myrfn

Situated only moments to the historic district, the beautiful & unique "round" Holiday Inn Charleston Riverview captures the spirit of Charleston and invites you to enjoy the spectacular views of the cityscape and the Ashley River.As our special guest, we offer express check-in and check-out, COMPLIMENTARY on-site motor coach parking, porterageservice & COMPLIMENTARY shuttle service to & from the Historic District of Charleston as well as the SC Aquarium &Ft. Sumter Tours. Enjoy the amazing & beautiful panoramicview of the city of Charleston & the Ashley River atop thehotel from our full-service Harbor View Restaurant & Lounge.Reserve your tour group today! Please call 843-460-1440 or email Brandy Olson at [email protected], or visitour website at www.hiriverview.com

Looking for the perfect place to stay with plenty to offer yourguests, all within walking distance of the hotel? Look no furtherthan the Harbor Front Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Fernandina Beach! As our special guest, we offer express check-in and check-out, parking for your motor coach, baggagehandling, a welcome reception and COMPLIMENTARY welcomebags. Your guests will enjoy a COMPLIMENTARY full hotbreakfast in our Café while taking in the beautiful views of thehistoric Fernandina Harbor. We have over 50 restaurants,shops and attractions within walking distance from the hotelmaking us the perfect destination spot for your tour!Reserve your tour group today! Please call Celeste Christian at 904-491-4911, or visit our website at www.hamptoninnandsuitesameliaisland.com

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travel sectors - today’s backpackers andstudents are tomorrow’s honeymoon,family, business and leisure travelers, aswell as foreign employees in local indus-tries. Plus, not only do they return todestinations they like, they also continueto travel to more destinations, furtherenriching and unifying the industry.

At a value of approximately US$136 billion per year, the youth travelindustry commands great power and isset for growth. Solomon highlightedanother trend he nicknamed the PeterPan Syndrome, meaning that today’syouth want to stay younger, longer.Students are now prone to defer life’sbig decisions and are increasingly turn-ing to gap years, especially with strongunemployment figures intimidatingthem. For the global youth travel in-dustry, this means even more revenuepotential.

W Y S E T R AV E L C O N F E D E R AT I O NThe WYSE Travel Confederation (wysetc.org), which is endorsed by theUNWTO and UNESCO, is a not-for-profit membership association that supportsthe global youth travel industry and creates new opportunities for youth andstudent travelers worldwide. It consists of various niche associations such as:

• International Student Identity Card Association (ISIC)• STUDY WYSE Association• Safe Travel Accommodation for Youth Association (STAY WYSE)• International Association for Student Insurance Services (IASIS)• WYSE Work Abroad Association• International Au Pair Association (IAPA)

The Confederation’s annual event, the World Youth & Student Travel Conference, connects the manysectors and organizations in this niche market.Bringing these industries together provides a singularopportunity to pursue innovative partnerships, develop marketing and distribution channels, andtap into new markets. WYSTC will take place in Europe in September 2011. Event photos, seminarvideos, industry and event news can be found at http://wire.wystc.org.

LeisureGroupTravel.com December 2010 15

Navy Pier is Chicago’s top-visited, year-round attraction, featuring restaurants, rides, shops,

dining cruises, free entertainment and so much more!


Tour planners interested in expanding their student travel offer-ings—or jumping into the student market for the first time—

will find a gold mine of practical tips in the 2011 edition of StudentTravel Planning Guide. A comprehensive resource for planningstudent/youth trips, the 36-page guide is published by PremierTourism Marketing, parent company of Leisure Group Travel.

Randy Mink, managing editor of Student Travel PlanningGuide, said, “Teachers, travel agents and other tour planners willfind the handy guide a welcome addition to their arsenal of re-sources. There is nothing like it out there.”

Written by educators, the second annual edition of StudentTravel Planning Guide provides how-to advice on planning and executing successful youth trips. Directory listings pinpoint attractions, tour companies and destinations eager for studenttravel business. Sections include:

STUDENT TRAVEL PLANNING GUIDE PROVIDES VALUABLELESSONS

Setting a Trip-Planning Timeline

Working with Tour Providers

Choosing a Tour Hotel

Student Discipline

Choosing Chaperones

Group Travel Insurance

Post-Trip Activities

ONLINE RESOURCES

I n addition to Student Travel Planning Guide, Premier TourismMarketing offers InSite on Student Travel, both a website and

monthly e-newsletter. The website, with listings and links tothousands of student/youth-friendly destinations and businesses,is designed to be the premier research tool for the market. The e-newsletter takes its cue from InSite on Leisure Group Travel,offering news, destination reports and practical tips. To obtain a copy of Student Travel Planning Guide or subscribe to the e-newsletter, visit insite.studenttraveldirectory.com.

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STUDENT ORIGIN MARKETS –WHERE DOES IT ALL BEGIN?

China and India are the main sourcecountries for the US $17 billion over-seas student industry, which employs125,000 people and funds 25 per-cent of university teaching. Researchshows that 645,000 Chinese stu-dents will be studying abroad by2025, a staggering 84 percent in-crease from 2007.

Young Chinese today take an ac-tive interest in other cultures andyearn to travel and study abroad.They place a premium on Westerneducation, and with a market thesize of China, the potential is lucra-tive. By 2015 there will be 500 mil-lion people under the age of 30 inChina, roughly the population ofthe European Union. And with cur-rent figures showing 256 millionyouth online in China, it’s no secrethow to reach them.

In the next five to ten years, thepowerhouses of China and India willbe joined by a number of emergingsource markets such as Brazil, Chile,Bolivia, Peru, the Czech Republic,Vietnam, Pakistan, Russia, Georgia andCentral Asian states such as Kyrgyzstanand Tajikistan.

WHERE ARE YOUTH GOING?Once again, China takes the crown

and is pegged to be the world’s No. 1tourist destination by 2015. By next yearalone, the total China travel market (in-bound and outbound) is forecasted at$65 billion, and by then over 20 percentof it will be online. (Source: PhoCusWright – Emerging Online TravelMarketplace).

The study abroad industry is a key component: China plans to attract500,000 international students in 2020,including 150,000 in universities. QiuXiaoping from the Beijing Municipal

Commission of Education also delivereda speech during WYSTC’s opening ses-sion, encouraging further cooperation ineducation and culture communication.“The Chinese government is more open

to international academic communica-tion programs as increasing numbers ofoverseas students are coming to study inChina,” Qiu said.

Meanwhile, “countries like Chile,Colombia, the Czech Republic, Roma-nia and Saudi Arabia are becomingmore integrated in global trade andcould begin to attract students,” statedAngel Calderon of Australia’s RMITUniversity in his recent paper “Emerg-ing Countries for Student Recruitmentin Tertiary Education.”

Youth travelers are continually hailedas pioneers and trend-setters, forgingnew tourism frontiers and opening upnew markets through their adventurousspirit and desire for new experiences. Byappealing to this market, places like

Beirut, Nairobi and Cape Town are be-coming the new destinations of choice.

Perhaps then it was no coincidencethat a new hop-on, hop-off travel com-pany, Falafel Travel Corp., was launched

at WYSTC by Australian Frank Scerri.The company will begin operation ofits backpacker bus across Jordan, Israeland Egypt in March 2011. “People aregenuinely excited about this product,but the biggest question I have had isabout security in the region,” he said.“These countries are very safe places totravel, and the people are extremelyfriendly.”

WHAT REALLY MATTERS?Solomon told the WYSTC audience

that this generation is not one of creatorsbut one of sharers. Youth today are oftenconsidered to be lazy or spoiled sincetechnology has created things for them;they are used to getting whatever theywant or need at any time or place. He

Industry leaders recently gathered in Beijing to discuss youth travel issues.



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cited a trend coined “now-stalgia,” clari-fying that rather than looking ahead towards a brighter future, they are look-ing backwards and revitalizing old fash-ions, movies, songs and video games.Therefore, companies must provide thetools for them to have new experiences.Furthermore, with youth’s addiction tosocial media and sharing quick updatesor moments, businesses not only need tocreate new moments for them but alsofacilitate the subsequent sharing of thoseexperiences.

“But don’t just sell experiences, sellmeaningful experiences,” WYSTCkeynote speaker Daniel Levine of TheAvant-Guide Institute urged. Levinehighlighted the global financial melt-down as the key reason for a sudden cultural change: “a social earthquake.”He showed that travel opportunities thatreflect the desire for education, learningand personal experience are becomingincreasingly popular.

Solomon echoed this in stressing thatyouth are leading the trends towardsself-improvement, eco-awareness, socialresponsibility, community involvementand volunteering. Millennials are partic-ularly attracted to travel offerings thatmove beyond the mainstream and provide value-driven, conscientious ex-periences.

The message from this year’sWYSTC was loud and clear:

• Travel products and services need tobe unique and of high-quality

• Your company must create new,enriching experiences for youth and students

• Give your customers the tools andopportunities to engage with you andwith your potential customers

• If China isn’t already part of yourbusiness plan, then find the right part-ners and get into this market now LGT

Jacqueline Kassteen is the communications and

marketing officer of WYSE Travel Confederation


NEW YORK CITY Student groups can fly over the

Statue of Liberty, ride the Cyclone rollercoaster and experience other New YorkCity landmarks at NY SKYRIDE, thevirtual tour simulator attraction on thesecond floor of the Empire State Build-ing. Its latest add-on package, for groupsof up to 80, is a meal plan ($6 a person)at Rosa’s Pizza, inside the city’s tallestskyscraper.

NY SKYRIDE, an entertaining intro-duction to America’s largest city, offersfree, downloadable school curriculums(certified by the State of New York forgrades 6-12) and walking tours. In thevirtual tour, the city comes to life viaspecially designed seats and a platformthat move in sync to a two-story-tallHD screen. The narrator is actor KevinBacon. Groups can combine SKYRIDEwith Fast Track admission to the EmpireState Building Observatory, reducingwait time by 75 percent. The comboplan for student groups is $26 a person.Many groups, though, just do theSKYRIDE ($12), according to ReneeWilson, assistant director of business development. (212-299-4904,skyride.com)

CAST IN WAXStudent groups at Madame Tussauds

Washington D.C. can add an educa-tional seminar or scavenger hunt to theirvisit. Current seminars are available intwo subjects: art history and marketingand public relations pertaining to thetourism industry. Scavenger hunts areoffered in short (20-25 questions) andlong (40-50 questions) formats.

Madame Tussauds has a mini-educa-tional curriculum guide and poster fea-turing the 44 U.S. Presidents. The guide,developed in accordance with the U.S.Department of National Social StudiesStandards and National Council for theSocial Civil Rights Movement Studies

Standards, is designed to empower edu-cators with the tools they need to deliverlessons in areas such as history, politicalscience, social studies and media beforeand after visiting the wax museum. ThePresidents Gallery, one of the museum’sspecial features, will have life-sized waxfigures of all 44 U.S. presidents fromGeorge Washington to Barack Obama.

The gallery is expected to be completeby February.

Madame Tussauds offers an array ofbuffet dinner options in conjunctionwith an evening group visit. Popularchoices include pasta bars, pizza partiesand hot sub sandwich bars. Catering isprovided by La Prima Catering. (888-923-0334, madametussauds.com)

Attractions across America offer student groups educational components as well as fun Newsstudent travel

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Call 866 868-7774 (866 Tours SI)TTY: 202 633-8850

or visit www.si.edu/group_tours

on Demand!

UNDER THE SEAThe National Aquarium, a student

travel hotspot in Baltimore, offersschool groups a variety of tours andprograms, including scientific investiga-tions and animal presentations. Topicsrange from sharks and Australian ani-mals to coral reef ecosystems. There’seven a squid dissection lab. The Chesa-peake Bay Explorations program letsstudents test water samples and measureoysters to draw conclusions about thehealth of the bay. For advanced highschool biology students, a behind-the-scenes tour emphasizes water chemistry,animal care, exhibit maintenance andaquarium careers. All programs support the Maryland

Volunteer State Curriculum in Science.Teacher booklets are available to provideclassroom activities that prepare studentsfor the program and discussion after thevisit. Groups may pre-order box lunches,dine in one of the Aquarium’s cafes oreat in the waterfront park. Besides exhibits, Aquarium highlights

include a dolphin show and the 4-DImmersion Theater, which combines 3-D film with sensory effects such asmist, wind, snow, bubbles, steam, legticklers and seat vibrations. (410-576-3833, aqua.org/teachers)

TOP OF CHICAGOSkydeck Chicago, the 103rd-floor

observation deck atop the 110-storyWillis Tower, offers new educationaltools for student groups, including a 37-page guide, The Hows, Whats and Wows of Willis Tower—A Guide forTeachers. On a clear day, four states—Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin andMichigan—are visible from the nation’stallest building (formerly Sears Tower).A scavenger hunt encourages students tocheck off sights like the Lincoln ParkZoo, Buckingham Fountain, Navy Pierand O’Hare Airport. Students especially

like The Ledge, a glass balcony experi-ence that extends 4.3 feet from outsidethe building, giving them a clear view1,353 feet straight down. Free bus park-ing is available for groups with reserva-tions. (312-875-9447, theskydeck.com)

TROPICAL FUNWhite Water, the water fun park in

Branson, Mo., unveils Aloha River atHula Hula Bay in May 2011. The park’snewest area will provide a setting of lushPolynesian jungles reminiscent of theSouth Pacific. Floating riders maneuver-ing through the calm waters will meetwith unexpected twists and turns, waterfeatures, fountains, misters and geysers.The 800-plus-foot river will be thepark’s longest ride. New seating areas

Daring students brave The Ledge

at Willis Tower's Skydeck Chicago.

Newsstudent travel

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and cabanas are being added. Favorite rides at White Waterinclude the seven-story Kalani Towers for speed racing,Tropical Twister and Bermuda Triangle. (800-417-7770, silverdollarcity.com)

PARK AFTER DARKStudents can wake up to giraffes, zebras and hippos on

sleepover programs offered by Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.Included are special animal encounters, hands-on educationalactivities, a pizza dinner, continental breakfast and overnightaccommodations. Also available are two- or three-night campadventures with behind-the-scenes encounters. There’s alsotime to enjoy the theme park’s rides, shows and attractions.Busch Gardens Camps support the National Science Edu-cation Standards and Florida Sunshine State Standards. (877-248-2267, buschgardens.org)

NEW IN MYRTLE BEACHA WonderWorks attraction will open in March 2011

at Broadway at the Beach entertainment complex in MyrtleBeach, S.C. The first attraction of its kind in the Carolinas,it will feature more than 100 interactive exhibits. Wonder-Works will be located adjacent to Soar & Explore’s zip lineand ropes course, an attraction openedby WonderWorks management earlierthis year. It will appear as a four-story,classically-designed building that appearsto have landed upside down. Exhibits include the hurricane shack,

where guests will feel the effects ofwinds reaching 74 miles per hour; a bedof nails, where visitors will feel the sen-sation of 3,500 sharp nails; the Wonder-Wall, where people can create a 3-Dimpression of their bodies by pressingonto a wall made of 40,000 plastic pins;the XD Theater 4-D Extreme MotionRide, which uses special effects and full-motion seats to take guests along anamazing adventure that transcends time,space and imagination; and Shuttle Landers, where visitors can experiencethe challenge of landing the DiscoverySpace Shuttle.Other WonderWorks attractions are

in Orlando and Panama City Beach,Fla. and Pigeon Forge, Tenn. (wonder-worksonline.com) LGT

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