College Tour Planning a Likely Course for Travel Advisors

For the parents of college-bound students, arranging tours of prospective schools can be an onerous and time-consuming task. It’s also a necessary one, given that college is likely to be one of the biggest financial investments they and their children will ever make.

The college tour dilemma presents an opportunity for enterprising travel advisors. Skift looks at how several companies are offering assistance with planning tours of college campuses, sometimes covering several in one trip. Along with handling the basic travel logistics, they can even arrange for access to campus areas not normally accessible to visitors.

Also concerning college-age consumers, another story looks at how the emergence of Generation Z, with its considerable financial clout through family influence, is affecting travel spending, particularly at the luxury level. Those who market and sell travel need to take note.

For more coverage of pertinent issues, click here.

Any suggestions for the coverage you would like to see are welcome. Feel free to contact me at mbl@skift.com.

— Maria Lenhart, Travel Advisor Editor

Featured Stories

College Tour Planning Is a Growing Niche for Travel Advisors: The business of planning custom college tours has the potential to grow as tuition continues to balloon at schools across the U.S. The relative cost of having an expert plan an intensive college visit may be worth it for students and families preparing to make a major investment.

Why Luxury Travel Purveyors Should Pay Attention to Generation Z: While most members of Generation Z have yet to make a substantial income, they are having unexpected influence over family travel decisions. That’s why travel marketers need to start paying attention to this new generation of consumers. Sorry, millennials.

Hotels

IHG Goes Big Into Asia Luxury Wellness With Six Senses Acquisitions: The wellness market is huge, but InterContinental Hotels Group hasn’t had a finger in it. Watch that change as it leverages the Six Senses acquisition for spa concepts for its brands.

Events

Cvent Hitches Up With Wedding Spot to Boost Venue Business: Cvent remains committed to bringing new products to its customers through acquisitions. By diving into the U.S. market for weddings, the event tech giant hopes to keep its platform relevant despite the friction it creates for hotels and planners alike.

Airlines

U.S. Airlines Add Untapped International Routes in Next Stage of Growth: When U.S. airlines started making money again several years ago, they added flights to some of the biggest business destinations. But they have mostly filled in those gaps, so now they’re taking chances on more unusual routes. Some will surely fail.

Plastics in Airline Catering Raise Questions About Carbon Emissions: Airlines have a love-hate relationship with plastics, especially when it comes to food and beverage. Plastics pose a serious environmental threat, but at the same time they’re lightweight and thereby help reduce carbon emissions. Can carriers tackle both of these problems at once?

United Won’t Pay Munoz a Full Bonus: Airline CEO Pay: U.S. airline CEOs make a lot of money. But they have tough jobs, and their businesses are making money. Maybe they deserve it.

Singapore Airlines CEO Lays Out Challenges Without Any Domestic Routes: In a rare appearance at Skift Forum Asia, Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong says the carrier is in a unique position: It doesn’t operate a single domestic route. So it has to make up for the valuable revenue stream it lacks from domestic traffic feed by competing aggressively in a fragmented market.

Skift Travel Advisor Editor Maria Lenhart [mbl@skift.com] curates the Skift Travel Advisor Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Tuesday. Have a story idea? Or a juicy news tip? Want to share a memo? Send her an email.