ALTO Newsletter Autumn 2021

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

ALTO online AGM and Election 5th Nov

The ALTO Annual General Meeting is held online on 5th November 2021, and this year an Election of ALTO officers is due to take place during the meeting.
The ALTO Board would like to invite highly engaged members to submit their Candidacy form by 6th October 2021, follow the link below or contact Reka for further details.

Candidacy form for ALTO members

#ALTOgather Berlin 31st Oct 2021

ICEF announced the Berlin Workshop held from 31st October – 2nd November as a hybrid event and the association will have an onsite presence with Reka Lenart at the ALTO booth in front of L.A. café. Please make sure you visit us during the workshop to find out about our plans for 2022.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to organise a F2F Unconference/ Round table event for those members travelling to Berlin, and catch up over a nice meal. Please register your interest at the button below.
Registration form #ALTOgather Berlin 2021

ALTO Pulse – quarterly industry report

The ALTO Pulse is designed to create a snapshot of the international education industry’s recovery projection and since we collect the data over a relatively short space of time and participants represent all stakeholders worldwide, it’s a very good indicator of leaders’ sentiment regarding the next 18 months.

ALTO provides this free service to support business owners with a global perspective and help them achieve the fastest recovery possible.

A special thank you goes out to FELCA (Federation of Education and Language Consultant Associations) who decided to contribute with additional questions and by driving agency participation to make the report even more accurate and relevant to all industry players.

Read more about the ALTO Pulse project and find our previous reports on our webpage.
You can download the latest ALTO Pulse Q3 2021 report via the button below and don’t forget to complete the Q4 2021 survey before 22nd October 2021 – thank you.
ALTO Pulse Q3 2021 – read the report
ALTO Pulse Q4 2021 – complete survey now

Overcoming Adversity – event report

In this energy booster session Michelle Griffith Robinson former Olympic athlete talked about ways to ‘bounce back’ and ‘dig deep’ in challenging times.

The workshop ‘Resilience and Strength’ allowed participants to think about their own personal journey and to reflect on their WHY and their own personal mission.

ALTO members, please contact me for the session recording.
Overcoming Adversity – Resilience and Strength