Ghent (Belgium), Giorgio Vassallo - What is the current status of the language travel industry? The results of a recent survey show important statistics about the business performance of language schools and education agencies.
The first ALTO (Association of Language Travel Organisations) Language Travel Industry Survey was carried out with the assistance of consultancy firm Deloitte.
General Growth
The survey was based on data provided by over 300 schools and 64 agents representing more than 120 agencies. The survey shows that the adult language travel market is experiencing growth: Revenue is reported to have increased year-to-year by 16% and 10%, for adult and junior learners, respectively, which matches a 16% increase in adult learners, and a 9% increase in junior learners.
Australia and South Africa saw the best performance increases, with figures of over 20% growth. Participants’ top three countries were the UK, USA and Canada.
Importance of Agents
As personalised learning becomes more in demand, education agencies become more important as well. Agents can help prospective students find a school that is better suited for their needs. The survey indeed show the importance of agencies; they recruit 85% of all students that go on language holidays.
Negative Issues
Besides the overall increased growth, the survey also documents negative issues that affect both businesses and students alike. According to the survey, 81% of language providers report that they have been negatively affected by economic issues in their countries, as well as other issues like visa policies (72%) and even the presence of competitor schools. Some respondents specifically outline fears about violence in their destination country, the spread of Ebola and the recent turbulent Russia-EU relations.
ALTO hopes that the survey will become the standard benchmark for the industry in upcoming years, and its immediate aims are to increase both the quantity and quality of the survey responses.
A summary of the report and more information can be found below.
http://www.altonet.org/
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.altonet.org/resource/resmgr/Docs/The_ALTO_-_Deloitte_summary_.pdf/