Work Experience Travel Market & IAPA Annual Conference 2013 Recap
The Work Experience Travel Market & IAPA Annual Conference bring together the world’s top work & volunteer abroad, au pair and gap-year industry professionals to meet, share and collaborate. This industry conference hosted by WYSE Travel Confederation (The World Youth Student & Educational Travel Confederation) and IAPA (The International Au Pair Association) combines b2b meetings with further education, discussions and plenty of opportunities to network with partners and colleagues from around the world.
Youth Travel Research
Last month in Rome, Italy, the conference also saw the launch of the WYSE Travel Confederation’s New Horizons III Report, detailing important trends in the youth travel industry. This report revealed who is going, where and for how long, how young people are spending their time and money abroad as well as where they sleep and how they communicate while away from home. The New Horizon’s III Report discloses the motivation, strengths and trajectory of the fast-growing youth travel industry as well as a few other surprising statistics.
Why are young people traveling? The report clearly outlined the top 3 reasons being:
- Holiday
- Language Learning
- Work Experience
The #1 destination for international Work Experience programs proved to be North America and of those surveyed, more than 60% of participants were female.
Regarding budget, the largest expense for Work Experience abroad programs was disclosed as accommodation followed by food & drinks then program costs and activities; and despite easy access to technology these days there has been an overall increase in communication spending.
While visas applications can sometimes be confusing and take time to process it’s good to know that young travelers are not intimidated by this, as demonstrated in the report.
It’s obvious that young adults see the value in going abroad and appear to have well-defined motivation for their travels and understand the benefits.
The presentation of the New Horizons III report by David Chapman and subsequent panel discussion left us with 2 questions to ponder:
and …
For more juicy statistics about youth travel, destinations and accommodation from the New Horizons III report, check out Budget Traveller’s recap from ITB Berlin as well as WYSETC’s Youth Travel Research website.
International Au Pair Association – Au Pair of the Year
One such example of gap year success, is Femke, a German au pair who spent a year with a host family in New Zealand. Femke was awarded “Au Pair of the Year” by IAPA at WETM-IAC in Rome. After her acceptance speech, the talented girl sang a beautiful song dedicated to New Zealand and her host family, proving that a year abroad can be life-changing, eye-opening and inspiring. Congratulations, Femke!
WYSE TRAVEL CONFEDERATION is the world’s largest network of youth and student travel operators. WYSE Travel Confederation is a not-for-profit association dedicated to supporting the global industry and connecting the organisations that serve millions of young people who travel to study, work and grow.
The International Au Pair Association (IAPA) is the leading global trade association for organisations active in all aspects of au pair and cultural exchange programmes. IAPA has more than 170 member organisations active in 45 countries worldwide. Member organisations must meet firm business and ethical standards, and agree to abide by IAPA’s Code of Conduct which signifies competence, fair dealing and high integrity. IAPA is a global not-for-profit organisation and a founding member of the World Youth Student & Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation.
To stay in the know in the youth travel sector, consider joining industry leaders at the World Youth and Student Travel Conference in Sydney, Australia from September 17 – 20th.
And follow @gostudywork on Twitter!
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If you are thinking about becoming an au pair in Europe, check out our Au Pair FAQ or find out more about work experience programs in Canada here.
UPDATE APRIL 28, 2012
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