Student Tours to Belize

Travel to Central America can be fascinating and rewarding. When most people think of traveling to Central America, Costa Rica might spring to mind, but it is certainly not the only place in the region for travel, though it may be the most popular with tourists. Much can be learned and experienced, and money can be saved by looking to the countries that have not yet realized the full value of tourism or have been "discovered" by most travel agents and travelers. Belize is one such country. With travel to Belize being somewhat "off the beaten tourist path" it's wise to consult with experts for where to go and what to do. Recently the Belize government has made tourism an economic priority second only to agriculture. Belize considers itself part of both Central America and the Carribean, with a great deal of biological diversity, safe waters, ecotourism, and Mayan ruins!

Katie Valk from Belize Trips claims: "We are Belize-based travel specialists for natural history, Mayan sites, caves with artifacts, flora/fauna, cultures, marine and reef biology, botanic gardens, butterfly farms, rainforest medicine and more."

Belize Trips

Location: Belize City, Belize

tel: 561 210 7015

www.belize-trips.com

Adventure Engine - Online Trip Booking

The internet has changed the way we book travel. The vast majority of tour companies and travel providers make use of online booking systems. Many use the internet to advertise and promote their brand as well. If you are a tour company and want to improve your online presence, contact me. 

Here is a Canadian company that serves as both an online warehouse for tour operators to list their products power their online sales and a listing of such operators for teachers and clients to search. Cool!

Adventure Engine

Location: Rossland BC, Canada

Tel: 1-800 993-6648

www.adventureengine.com 

BLOG: http://blog.adventureengine.com/

They invite tour operators to add their services and clients to search their listing of trips and tours. If you're looking for an experience for your students, check them out.

Disabled Accessible Travel - Students in Wheelchairs

Having been a tour guide for quite some time, I have had groups that included students with differing levels of mobility and sensory acuity. Each disability poses its own unique set of challenges to the student who has it (obviously), but also the group and tour guide as well. Walking tour routes might have to be modified to accommodate students in wheelchairs. In historical districts or attractions, with cobblestone roads and no modifications for accessibility allowed (in order to preserve the original look and feel), this can sometimes mean missing entire sections of the tour, and perhaps some activities. Bus loading and unloading times can be longer if a wheelchair has to be loaded and unloaded by lift. The challenges can be many and are often unforseen.

Tour companies plan educational tours based on the assumption that all students and chaperones are able to walk a reasonable distance. On a few tours I've had people show up on the day of the trip that were on crutches from a leg injury, very pregnant, or too obese to walk very far at all unassisted. It's a grey line between accommodating such people and giving the rest the fullest possible experience. As a guide you want everyone to have the same great experience, and it can be frustrating when a disability (something you have no control over) throws a monkey wrench into your itinerary (something you can control).

For students that require additional care or have special needs, their parents might opt not to send them on a school trip thinking that the extra time and consideration when planning and executing the trip just to accommodate their child is not warrented. My recommendation is for parents of disabled students to talk to the teacher planning the trip and the for both to talk to the tour company about what accommodations can be made, and how to best meet the needs of everyone on the trip. Tour companies want as many children to enjoy educational travel as possible, and sitting out should be the last option considered.

One company, located in Barcelona, caters exclusively to tour and travel experiences for people with disabilities. Alan Broadbent from Disabled Accessible Travel sent me this info about his company:

We offer something unique, a Global service in walking tours (and often much more for people over 18, such as sky diving, hot air ballooning)for the disabled. Our team is led by former educators, who are disabled, with experience of teaching from junior to post graduate university level so educational tour groups enjoy high levels of understanding of their needs.

Disabled Accessible Travel

Location: Barcelona, Spain

tel: +34 605918769

www.disabledaccessibletravel.com

Other companies that specialize in tours and travel for people with disabilities are welcome to contact me to have themselves featured in an upcoming post.

Small Tour Companies - JRP Educational Travel Inc

Educational travel is big business, but working with a big company to plan your class trip isn't necessarily the best choice. It really all depends on what you want from your tour company. With larger companies you often get a lower price (but not always) because they deal with higher volumes when it comes to booking hotel rooms and buses. You often deal with more people over the course of planning your trip, since there are more staff at the company involved in putting your trip together. With the larger tour companies, you might end up speaking to a sales rep, their sales assistant, an operations person, and customer service department if they have one.

That said, there are many smaller tour operators worth looking into. Here is an example of one from Oakville Ontario (near Toronto) called JRP Educational Travel Inc. Owner J.R. Portoraro tells me they hande "English courses, summer camps, high school, boarding school, ballet school, cultural trips, tours, excursions, and graduation trips."

JRP Educational Travel 

Location: Oakville, ON Canada

Tel: (905) 849-4355

www.princeofwales.ca

In any case, it helps if you decide what it is that you want most from a tour company. The default answer is lowest price, but I've found that when it comes to planning a school trip year after year, finding a tour company you can build a comfortable relationship with (whether it's with a trusted rep, or team of professionals) makes life a heck of a lot easier, and is well worth the little extra you might pay.

Supplier Profiling and LinkedIn

Like many in the travel industry, I am part of a few groups on the business social networking site LinkedIn. I posted on a couple of industry groups there a week (or so) ago that I was looking for suppliers to profile on this blog. It was the second time I had made such a posting on LinkedIn, and received about 3x the number of responses as the first, and all within about 48 hours of posting. I have just started to resume posting, and will aim for one post every day or two to get caught up. 

If you are one of the few dozen who completed a supplier profile, please be patient. I have a lot of work ahead of me, and I don't want to do more than one post a day, so everyone gets a decent amount of exposure on the site.

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming post, simply complete this online form.

I am doing this for free (and for fun), but I would appreciate it if the suppliers I profile would tell others about my blog. If you would like to connect, my LinkedIn profile is here:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkucherawy

Jason Kucherawy