You’ve made the decision to sponsor a trip for your students and the initial work has been done. You have your destination, dates, price and early promotional material in place. You should also have a few early sign-ups by this point.
Like a game of football, momentum is very important in student group travel planning. Don‘t get tricked into complacency, for what you do now often determines the success or failure of your school trip. Consider these tips to keep your plans on the right track.
1) Promotion, Promotion, Promotion
Just like the three most important factors in real estate are location, location, location, so is promotion to the likelihood of your trip getting off the ground with maximum participation. By now, the initial enthusiasm of your announcement has worn off and everyone is back to their daily grind. The trip’s importance may wane in some people’s mind.
Combat that with a steady stream of promotion – look at producing one piece of content per week and getting it out to your students and parents. You have a lot of free or low-cost tools available to you here including:
- Trip flyer inserts in take-home packets or mailed to student’s homes
- Destination brochures from the area convention & visitor bureau and main attractions, made available to students
- Posters you can hang in the classroom or common areas of the school
- Website or blog designed around your trip – with free tools from WordPress or Blogspot this is easier than you might think!
- Facebook page dedicated to your trip
2) Build Your Resource Library
Create a list of reading materials, study exercises and pertinent websites to help prepare students for the trip. Sometimes these are available from your student tour operator or destination, other times you will have to build them from scratch. If that’s the case, task your class to come up with one resource and allow them to share with others. Points for creativity here!
3) Get Your Documentation in Order
Travelling overseas? Passports or visas need time to work through the system, make sure your students have the proper documentation and ask for a copy of what was sent (or confirmation) so there are no surprises later.
Follow these three tips and momentum will certainly be on your side!
