How College Students Gain From Traveling
BY DAVID GUTIERREZ
Many educators today are afraid of taking students on tours due to the increasing security and safety measures regarding group travel. Both new and experienced educators fear the risks in case any of the students are found to be non-compliant. But student trips should not be seen as a hassle, but rather as an opportunity for the students to learn the basics of traveling, what is expected of them, and how to plan for these trips and others in future. For that reason, keep reading to discover the various ways through which students can gain from trips and this what Thrifty Points does.
To begin with, these are a few safety areas that students need to prepare for. These will go a long way to equip them with how to plan ahead in life.
Find An Appropriate Travel Planner
This, of course, is not a requirement on the part of students, but an essential factor in planning their trip. It is best when the group travel planner is reliable. It is always advisable to join mailing lists of trustable websites like Thrifty Points and get their best articles about worldwide luxury travel and air miles earning opportunities. They have No charge and No Spam. They give only Inspiration to the people. Use the list here to identify the most qualified travel planner for any student trip.
- Begin by discussing the destination and objectives of the educational tour with the prospective travel planner to determine whether they are experienced and familiar with the travel destination. You will know your prospective travel planner is a professional by the group histories and earlier itineraries to support their history of experience.
- Next, you may want to determine the duration of your travel planner company has been in business. You should specifically check for how long they have been helping facilitate student trips. Three years minimum is a good time for the travel planner to have garnered enough knowledge of how those trips should be conducted. Another important consideration is to make sure your travel planning agency has not filed for bankruptcy in at least five years. To help you understand the company more, it is best that you consider doing a background check. This will help you establish whether the principals of the firm have been convicted for any offenses that involve fraud, child abuse, breach of trust and deception among others.
- A travel planner company worth its salt should have proper liability insurance, besides a comprehensive risk management plan. In the event of natural disasters occurring, the preponderance of educators is often ill-prepared of the financial risks linked with group travel, while others are just totally unprepared.
- Be certain to find out the financial safeguards in place for protecting the customers. With a comprehensive consumer protection plan, the travel planner demonstrates their commitment to protecting the deposits and fees of their clients.
Ground Rules
Most of the educators usually set behavioral ground rules when taking students on a trip. It is however recommended that the teachers set the expectations for safe behavior. Some of them include:
- Setting rules to make sure that all young people maintain their sitting positions. A more significant amount of accidents occur when passengers are standing in walkways.
- Pay maximum attention to pre-flight safety demos, while making sure that each student gets to know where the nearest exit is located
- Participants of the educational tours should be advised to ensure their doors are locked and chained, and shouldn’t open the hotel room to strangers
- Ensure all participants of the trip know how they can get in touch the hotel front desk and the room of their group leader
- Educators need to make sure that all students have the name, phone number and address of the hotel all the time. They should also have the 24-hour hotline of the tour company. These are important in the event that a student finds they are alone. They can use those contacts, and the authorities can assist them in finding the rest of the group.
- It is a good thing that students keep smaller cash denominations to help them pay for small purchases without necessarily opening their wallets in busy places.
- Putting in place a buddy system rule ensure that no one strays from the rest of the group. Besides, be sure to include adult chaperones; each with a list of students assigned by cell phone number and names.
The above tips are quite critical in helping students understand that rules are not just a thing meant for the school environment. They are able to understand that rules are a general principle that helps with cohesive coexistence in society. Also, students start learning the important lessons of keeping themselves secure when engaging the general public. Thus, always connecting reliable resources like Thrifty Points keeps us safe and well organized.
Essential Safety Tips
It is vital that both parents and students are given additional safety tips to facilitate an incident-free trip. Some of the important safety tips are here below.
- It is important that all participants are advised on the limit of cash they should bring. In essence, both parents and students are given a guide about the amount of money they are going to need. Alternatively, you can have the parents carry ATM or credit cards in case they find an opportunity to use them.
- Make sure you gather health information from each of the families of students taking part in the trip. Parents must sign forms and permissions notarized for making the trip. When students are traveling overseas, it is best to choose a plan that offers coverage as well. A competent tour operator should be able to advise the school authorities on buying travel insurance. This will typically cover extras like theft occurring during the trip.
- Bring a basic first aid kit with antibiotic cream, bandages, and painkillers among others.
- Establish beforehand the participants that are taking medication. It is advisable that such prescriptions are kept in their original containers. Bringing copies of the current prescriptions makes it easier to replace lost medications. Another important thing is to list all students with allergies and the required medication.
- Make sure participants make copies of their travel documents such as visas, airline tickets, and passports for safe keeping. They will come in handy in the event the original documents get lost or misplaced.
For the interests of students and youths traveling, it is crucial that all safety and security measured are passed across the entire group. For that reason, keep reading to discover the various ways through which students can gain from trips as well as information providers that allow students to travel further for less such as Thrifty Points.
David Gutierrez has worked in the field of web design since 2005. Right now he started learning Java in order to get second occupation. His professional interests defined major topics of his articles. David writes about new web design software, recently discovered professional tricks and also monitors the latest updates of the web development.