Younger travelers are more globally conscious than ever, which means a vast market for you to sell.

Home-based travel agents looking to expand their businesses would be wise to look at the youth market if they are not already selling it. It is a large and growing market, and one that is largely untapped by sellers of travel. According to Michael Palmer, the executive director of the Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA), travelers under 26 account for as much as 20 percent of all international arrivals. Today’s youth are more globally conscious than ever and view the world as a place to explore.

Though SYTA specializes in travel for those under 26, youth-travel specialist Contiki Holidays defines its youth market as travelers between 18 and 35, and Trafalgar Tours’ range goes even higher, targeting those 21 to 38. According to Palmer, the market of travelers 12 to 18 alone constitutes a $10 billion-a-year market, according to a Michigan State University study.

Because much of the travel done the 18-to-26 group is independent, Palmer says, travel agents may find greater opportunity in the 12-to-18 segment, as most travel for this age bracket is in organized groups. This segment takes many school trips, such as high school band performances, language-club excursions abroad, graduation trips, sporting events and other groups traveling for their special interests.

According to Palmer, travel for the under-26 market is “one of the fastest-growing markets in the industry as a whole, and one of the few that continued to grow after 9/11.” The market has grown in double digits in most of the last decade, he added, except in 2002, when it was flat, and 2003, when it saw single-digit growth.

For most agents, this segment is not top of mind, which means less competition. For those who want to break into the youth market, Palmer recommends a two-pronged strategy. First, establish a working relationship with a tour wholesaler that specializes in student or youth travel. 

“It tends to be a very specialized market,” he says. “A travel agent can’t just walk into a school and say they’re going to take 40 to 80 students on a trip without knowing their needs and how to service them. If they ask about a band trip to Salzburg, for example, it would be good to know the names of the major performance venues. There are questions you need to be able to answer. If you team up with a wholesaler, that will take you a long way toward being able to provide the necessary expertise.”

The second prong of the strategy is exploring your community and making contacts for schools and organizations that may be interested in sending groups on trips. Because high school bands and language clubs are usually inundated with direct mail from tour operators, Palmer says, an agent might have better luck mining for hidden gems, such as non-school-related youth groups and school teams, organizations that are slightly lower profile and require a little more searching to uncover.

Tour operators that work in the youth travel market echo Palmer’s advice. Cracking this segment, they say, requires a different approach from dealing with mature travelers. “We suggest going to schools and meeting with principals, and at the university level, singling out professors,” says Carol Dimopoulos, the director of product development and a student travel expert for Celtic Tours World Vacations. “Going through the administration is impossible [if you want] to get anything done, so start with the individual professors. It’s best to start small with this market, then you can grow it exponentially.”

Starting small enables you to deliver a satisfying experience, which is the key to growing the business. “Student travel groups are very loyal, so as long as they are having a good experience, they’ll come back year after year,” says Sandra Murphy, the manager of custom tours for Globus. “The challenge is getting your foot in the door.”

Once a suitable prospect is found, it’s time to bring in the tour operator. “We’ll create a program around their needs,” says Dimopoulos. “Often they know what they want the tour to be themed around, but sometimes they don’t even know what destination they want when they first come to us. We’ll come up with a course description. We decide what area is most appropriate for learning what they are interested in. Our staff is very well educated on the needs for this demographic. They can come to us, and we’ll give them all kinds of ideas.”

A tour operator can cue travel agents with the knowledge needed to properly service an account, but it’s important travel agents to research the account themselves. “There are inherent differences between student and adult travel,” says Murphy. “With students there’s usually a security issue, so you need a tour operator with the right kind of liability insurance. Most schools want boys on one floor, girls on another, with chaperones interspersed among them. They want [cable TV] and minibars shut down, and no phone access. You’ll use different restaurants with student groups. If you know New York City, it’s a completely different trip with students. They want an educational component, preferably hands-on and experiential. And the quantity of things you do in a day is completely different. You fit many more attractions in for students than you ever would with adults. You want full, long days so the kids return tired, sleep and don’t get into trouble.”

Although the over-18 youth group tends to travel independently, the market can still be accessed through tour operators that cater to that segment. Tops on that list is Contiki, which has had the 18-to-35 market almost to itself since the company was founded in the early 1960s. The segment includes many affluent professionals, as well as those whose parents or grandparents will purchase a group tour in exchange for some peace of mind about the safety of their young travelers.

Contiki has its formula down, with late-morning starting times and more opportunities to participate in youth activities and nightlife than on tours for parents and grandparents. Contiki offers the advantages of packaged travel, such as economy, based on buying power; expert destination guides and tour managers to take the hassles off clients; and the company of like-minded travelers. But its marketing material makes it clear that a Contiki tour is a festive party rolling through the countryside from one destination to the next. And though a Contiki tour is undoubtedly made up of a nomadic tribe of restless youth, the company provides an infrastructure and an umbrella to protect participants from the harsher possibilities of travel, which makes Contiki a good sell for parents and grandparents as well as for the travelers themselves.

Staking out the youth travel market not only provides you with access to new clients right now, says Contiki President Frank Marini, it is a way to tap into the demographic that is your future traveler. “That young person who is now a student will soon be a young professional, a honeymoon couple, a family,” Marini says.

To find prospects, Marini suggests, “Look at your own personal sphere of influence: your family, your friends, your community network, people you are in touch with. Do you know a teacher? Do you have kids, and do they have friends? Does your neighbor have kids? Consider the local high school. You already have a contact base, though you don’t necessarily realize it.”

After your personal contacts, Marini adds, tap into your database of past customers, but from a new angle, as parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and teachers. Start with your top customers, then work down.

Trafalgar Tours, a mainstream operator of escorted tours and sister company to Contiki Holidays, has its own product line for a younger market, called Breakaway, which targets 21- to 38-year-olds. Thanks to the Breakaway line, combined with the upsurge in family travel, Trafalgar’s clientele in the 30- to 45-year-old segment has doubled in the last three years, according to Trafalgar’s president, John Severini.

Severini recommends that travel agents who want to penetrate this market go to Trafalgar’s website and take the self-administered eLearning program, which will qualify them as Trafalgar Experts. “Agents who have become Trafalgar Experts outsell the others by 24 percent,” says Severini.

Once you are familiar with the products, Severini says, you can start recommending them to cruise clients, and to the parents and grandparents of the potential youth travelers. “For the youth market, gifting is a big thing,” he says. “Suggest to parents and grandparents to recommend the youth tours. Youth travel is one of the best untapped markets. Not to be tapping it is like having a grocery store and shutting down one-third of your aisles.”