What mission drives your travel organization?
Many people become group travel leaders by accident and grow to love taking people on the road. Others see an opportunity to get free trips for themselves by hosting travel for their friends. And some come to build profitable businesses by planning and leading group trips.
But there’s a growing contingent of travel professionals who are involved in our business because they believe travel can change lives — and especially the lives of students.
That was the animating spirit among attendees at the Student & Youth Travel Association’s (SYTA) annual conference, which took place in August in Savannah, Georgia. The event drew some 1,100 tour operators, destinations, suppliers and others affiliated with student travel.
In some ways, the SYTA event is similar to other conferences in our industry, with exhibit booths, appointment sessions, educational opportunities and networking events. But in other ways, it is unique because the people in the room are motivated by more than the love of travel — they’re motivated by the love of students.
“Many of our members are former educators,” SYTA CEO Carylann Assante told me when we sat down for an interview during the conference. “So, we have a natural philosophy of working with young people and students. They see travel as an extension of the classroom. That same investment and passion in education, they transfer that to their work as a tour operator.”
There are special considerations and responsibilities that come with planning travel for students. Tour companies and their industry partners must ensure their trips meet certain educational requirements. They have to keep a very close eye on traveler safety and security. And in many school settings, there’s a mandate to keep costs as low as possible.
That was the top challenge association members identified in a recent survey, the results of which were released at the conference.
“The number one concern, from the tour op perspective, is the rising travel cost,” Assante said. “How can we work as an industry to try and help lower those costs? It may be impossible to go to an airline or supplier and get discounts. But are there ways we can do business that could reduce our cost? Is it traveling off-peak? Is it flying on certain days to reduce airline costs?”
Assante said the association is working hard to provide members with education and resources to help them mitigate the challenges of the high-cost travel environment. And through SYTA’s sister philanthropic organization, the SYTA Youth Foundation, companies and individuals throughout the industry are doing what they can to help students for whom the cost of travel is prohibitive.
Through a blind application process, the foundation provides scholarships for students in need to join their classmates on trips they otherwise couldn’t afford.
“Our industry donates and raises money,” Assante said. “We want travel to be affordable, and we’ve been able to increase the amount of scholarships we give out. But we can only fulfill about 10% of the requests we get.”
I hope that number grows. Because, like many of the young people that SYTA companies serve, I experienced trips as a student that shaped my future in profound ways.
“Travel is something really unique and really impactful,” Assante told me. “If you provide a trip for a student, it really does change their life.”
