DON’T LIVE First Choice enters North American student travel market
Saturday, 26 Apr, 2006
0
First Choice has acquired four student travel companies in North America for £16 million.
The group, which announced the purchases as part of its trading update for the close period on April 30, said it had identified this market as a key growth area.
All four companies provide national curriculum based tours to 11 to 15-year-old middle and high school students, mainly to US destinations.
The first, Educational Tours, is based in Chicago and is the second largest educational tours operator in the US. “The acquisition has given the group a significant entry point into this market,” said the trading statement.
The others - School Voyageurs, Educa Tours and Jumpstreet Tours – are all Canadian educational tours operators.
First Choice also reported that in the five weeks since its last statement on March 23, sales of mainstream summer holidays have been up 7% over the last five weeks with peak season rates of sale and margins particularly strong. Cumulative sales for the summer are now 4% up on the same period last year, it said.
But in the specialist sector, summer sales have been broadly flat over the last five weeks, with cumulative summer sales for Europe 12% down on the same period last year.
“In the shoulder period of May and June, when margins are lower, the significant capacity reductions we have implemented have resulted in lower year-on-year comparable sales. In the high season, however, we have continued to see improved rates of sale and margins ahead of last year,” said the statement.
The group’s business-to-business accommodation provider, Hotelopia, has signed further contracts with bmi, bmibaby and Spanair, and will start providing accommodation for the three airlines from May.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Clearing CSS/JS assets' cache... Please wait until this notice disappears...
Updating... Please wait...
France prepares for a massive strike across all transports on September 18
Turkish tourism stalls due to soaring prices for accommodation and food
CCS Insight: eSIMs ready to take the travel world by storm
Germany new European Entry/Exit System limited to a single airport on October 12, 2025
Airlines suspend Madagascar services following unrest and army revolt