ALTO Online: An Industry United

Welcome to the Autumn edition of the ALTO Newsletter by Leanne Linacre ALTO Chair.

ALTO’s role and importance within the language and educational travel industry has become very clear this year, much more than ever since I’ve been involved with the ALTO Board.

The CV-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on our industry and we’ve all spent the last 6 months fire-fighting, working hard on our business to ensure survival, having to make tough decisions in the process.

I would like to encourage leaders from all sides of the industry – agents, schools, associations and suppliers – to follow our news, engage with our projects and take advantage of the opportunities provided by ALTO for the entire industry to help you all navigate in this extraordinary time.

To our members I would like to extend the Board’s invitation to join us at the upcoming ALTO Online: An Industry United event which will give us all an opportunity to share our views on how we can best work together to ensure the health of the industry and its sustainability moving forward.

A vital part of our remit at ALTO is to provide safe spaces where schools, agents and suppliers can get together to share views, successes and frustrations and debate issues openly.  I am looking forward to seeing you all there and can’t wait to be part of some lively discussions with you all as we bring together the best in the business.

In the Autumn 2020 issue of the ALTO Newsletter you can read about:

ALTO Online: An Industry United 06/11/2020

We might not be able to meet in Berlin this year , but it’s never been more important for ALTO members to join the online version of our usual annual event, ALTO Online: An Industry United
As per members’ request, the event will include not only the AGM of the association, but a presenter and the opportunity to discuss relevant issues in smaller groups. The Board has been working on some interesting projects which they plan to bring to the membership at the AGM, you will learn more about the Industry Best Practices, the proposed Mediation Panel and the Industry Trends Barometer.

We’ll have an exceptionally high profile presenter, Linda Yueh, who will talk about the global economic outlook during Covid-19. Linda is former Chief Business Correspondent for BBC News and presenter of Talking Business with Linda Yueh for BBC World TV and BBC News Channel based in Singapore. Read more about the event and register at the button below.
ALTO Online: An Industry United – members’ registration

ALTO Industry Pulse Q4 2020

We’re calling all organisations in the language and educational travel industry to participate in this industry-wide data collection! As the name suggests it’s a snapshot of your current projections and an attempt for ALTO to serve the entire industry by bringing you worldwide data about the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, so that you can prepare your businesses better for the future.

The survey is much shorter this time, it only takes 2 minutes to complete and of course anonymous. We kept a question from the summer survey in order to follow the trend about your expectations of recovery.

The result will be public and sent to all ALTO newsletter subscribers, please complete as soon as possible and by 18th October 2020 – thank you!

Complete the ALTO Industry Pulse Q4 2020 survey

Welcome to our new member in Q3 2020

A warm welcome to our new Associate Trading member, Londonist DMC.
Londonist DMC is an award winning student accommodation agency located in Central London with 20 locations. We are leaders in finding the greatest “home far from home” for our students offering a 5 stars customer service for 5 stars experience at our rooms.
Please drop them a quick e-mail of welcome to the ALTO community!

The Future of Adult Language Travel report

In this extraordinary time ALTO felt that it needed to use its unique position to unite all stakeholders and to facilitate an open and inclusive discussion for the greater benefit of the industry. Therefore The Future of Adult Language Travel: 2020 and beyond report is public and available to everyone, please feel free to share.

If you would like to learn more about ALTO and be part of a professional association whose main aim is to grow and develop the language and educational travel industry, please contact me, Reka Lenart Association Manager by replying to this message.

2020 and beyond- Full Interactive Report

ICEF Virtual Berlin @999EUR

Only minutes before this newsletter was due to go to press, we received great news from one of our members, that they have a special deal for association members to join the ICEF Virtual Berlin event from 2nd – 4th November 2020.
Save 940 EUR from the normal 1940 EUR rate and pay only 999 EUR for this online workshop featuring 85 one-to-one meeting slots over 3 days, webinars and networking opportunities. Quote your ALTO membership when registering at the link below!

Book ICEF Virtual Berlin