Going through another summer season in the midst of the pandemic has put a strain on most businesses in international education and data recorded on our ALTOtrends Barometer tool shows that international student arrivals decreased by 75% in June 2021 compared to June 2019.
Still, there was a sense of positivity at the recent ALTO Round table session where some agent members reported no drop in student volumes last summer to certain European destinations where regulations allowed entry to the country and agents were expecting full recovery by next summer, provided students are fully vaccinated and there’s no quarantines in place.
“Schools see the reality of arrivals, but agencies see dreams and intentions – this is why agents are more optimistic about the recovery of the industry” – said Maria Castro ALTO Board member as feedback from her break-out room.
Those agents that offer academic programmes abroad recorded substantial growth for high school and boarding school programmes, so long term courses where testing and quarantine are minor issues are still popular. We received similar good news from accommodation providers reporting high demand.
Participants thought that the biggest challenges for the next two quarters were 1., government policies, 2., mutual recognition of Covid vaccines worldwide and 3., we could start seeing the pandemic’s positive and negative effects causing an evolution in our industry that we’ll have to adjust our businesses to.
The audience also agreed that the projections reported in ALTO’s quarterly Pulse report – scroll down to read more- were realistic and any data we can gather will help and support the industry in a faster recovery.
We, at ALTO are not alone in our quest for statistical collaboration: similarly to our above mentioned real time student arrivals tool, the ALTOtrends Barometer (free, but registration required), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) closely follows monthly data recorded on the Tourism Recovery Tracker featuring real time comparison of the sector recovery across the world. It’s worth exploring your regional data to get a better understanding of your recovery expectations.
Please contact Reka Lenart Association Manager for further details on how to participate in our open industry-wide projects.
Headlines from the newsletter:
- ALTO online AGM and Election – 5th November 2021
- #ALTOgather Berlin – 31st October 2021
- ALTO Pulse Q3 2021 – report published, Q4 2021 survey open
- Past event report: Michelle Griffith Robinson – Overcoming Adversity
Please feel free to get in touch with any questions, I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Reka
Reka Lenart
Association Manager |