The Student Group Surge

8/17/17
We all know group travel to Broadway has changed dramatically over the years. Goodbye theater parties, hello presales. So long corporate groups, hey there to Plum/TicketsatWork. Group tour operators (who used to include Broadway on their NYC itineraries) now instruct their customers to buy tickets when they get to the city.

Yet there is one consistent, bright, and continually growing portion of the group business: student & youth travel.

The Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA) and the SYTA Youth Foundation (SYF) specialize in this industry. Broadway Inbound will once again have a large presence at the 2017 SYTA Annual Conference—this month in Albuquerque—where attendees interact with this vital segment of the travel industry. 

SYTA recently released some findings from a landmark, global study to gauge the impact of travel on students and the travel industry. The study sheds light on the tremendous opportunity that exists to enhance learning while creating economic opportunities for cities, attractions, and small businesses.

Here are a few highlights to illustrate why SYTA and the student & youth market are so important to Broadway:
  •  28%  of students who travel take more than one trip a year. U.S. teachers organize an average of  1.7  school trips per year. On average, a U.S. teacher travels with  59.7  students per year. 
  • The top subjects for curriculum-related travel: music  72% , history  50% , art and culture  44% .  
  • New York is the #1 destination for student tour operators and the #2 destination for teachers booking directly (Washington D.C. was #1).
  • The overall market value (total expenditures) of U.S. student group travel is estimated to be at least  $5.6 billion .
  • Students traveling between the ages of 10 and 18 are likely to return to the destination later in their lives. Hence, they represent valuable repeat customers.
 72%  of student groups booked via tour operators travel within the U.S., and the groups tend to be about  20%  larger than those booked directly by teachers. That’s why SYTA has emerged as one of the most important tradeshows we attend, and as the volume of travel increases, so does SYTA’s value to Broadway. For more differences between teacher-booked and tour operator travel, see the infographic below.

With the demand for student travel expected to grow, SYTA is committed to helping parents and teachers enable kids to travel and provide the safest and most educational experience possible.


Learn more about Broadway Inbound at www.BroadwayInbound.com.