Small Groups

Taking students on short French and Spanish trips to Montréal, Québec City, New York and Chicago has always been easier for teachers in large schools who can draw participants from larger enrollments, because tour prices always go up and down as the number of participants goes down and up.

This is especially true for groups traveling by chartered motorcoach (because chartered busses cost the same regardless of the number of passengers on board), but it is also a factor for groups arriving in by air, and traveling from place to place by locally chartered bus, when every empty seat raises the per-person transportation cost.

One antidote for small schools (or larger schools in a soft economy), is to partner with another nearby school (or two), and VISIT CANADA had very great success in recent years in facilitating partnerships between two or more schools with the similar travel plans, when we knew about them. The advantage in pre-selecting partners, in addition to price reductions and firm departure dates, is that by collaborating with nearby schools, teachers pick their partners in advance, and then have the benefit of traveling with colleagues who have similar interests, and with students of similar age, educational and socio-economic profiles.

For example, we have students from three small schools within a 50-mile radius in New Hampshire, each with about 15 students, enjoying a weekend immersed in French in Québec City, and another group from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. None of these schools could have chartered a bus by itself, but all three are taking advantage of the lower price for 45 students. Several weeks ago, we did the same for schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and we have done so for groups from such far-flung places as Florida and California who met in Montréal, but needed only departure dates (and not geographic proximity) in common.

Occasionally, VISIT CANADA has been able to introduce group leaders (who eventually traveled together) to each other, but the most effective way to travel with a well-matched group leader and a compatible student group is to collaborate at the source.

Another solution is to combine French and Spanish classes from the same school (or school district). Indeed, VISIT CANADA has an extensive menu of French and Spanish trips to Chicago, New York City and Montréal that incorporate a carefully planned mix of interactive fun and education, and we have seen these trips work very well for many of our clients when a French-only trip, or a Spanish-only trip, never would have lifted off the ground.

And, this price reduction phenomenon often feeds on itself when, as more and more students enroll, the lower price allows additional students to enroll, reducing the price even further.

For information about our French, Spanish, French and Spanish and General Educational trips to Montréal, Québec City, Chicago, New York City or Boston, please call us at 800.456.5552.

Thank you, we look forward to hearing from you. We sincerely believe our trips are the very best available anywhere in the marketplace and we welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that to you.