Five ways to build excitement for your tour
Steve is a high school history teacher in San Diego who has been leading trips since 2011. He has traveled with students to three continents. To read more about his tours, check out his website.
One of the best ways to ensure a successful trip is to create excitement prior to enrollment. You could love travel, love teaching, and want to share these passions with your students, but if you don’t have excited students, your trip may not happen.
Your goal should be to create fanfare around your trip. Below are five ways I create excitement for my tour.
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01
Drumroll announcement
I make the location of our tour a secret (at least I try to). I reveal it at a school-wide assembly, even soliciting a drum roll to garnish more anticipation among the already excited students. Then I show a couple very crisp, amazing pictures of the place we are traveling to (check out my Japan presentation here).
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02
Set ideal dates and times
At the assembly, I announce two upcoming meetings. The first one is for students who are excited to learn more about the tour. I set that one for lunchtime sometime that week. The second meeting is for both students and parents, and it takes place the following week. Both occur on Thursdays, which I’ve found is an ideal day for meetings. Setting the dates so close to the announcement taps into initial excitement and makes them easy for the students to remember.
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03
Flood the campus
Following the meeting announcement, I hang EF posters throughout the campus. The posters highlight the location we’re traveling to and give meeting details. I also make some smaller fliers and give them to teachers to put up in their classrooms. This really helps get students excited to learn more about the tour destination.
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04
Front desk traffic
You would be surprised how many parents and students go through the main office in a day. I take extra care to talk with the front desk staff and explain the details of the trip so they can inform potential travelers. I also leave them with a couple of flyers to pass out.
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05
Online presence
I put a blurb highlighting the trip, meeting details, and location in the weekly newsletter our school sends out to parents and students. I also send out monthly newsletters about my classes and include some information about the trip. You can see an example here.
Although it is a fair amount of work, the more time you put into creating excitement about your trip, the more successful it will be.
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