[Industry] Discussion on new tourism formats from research travel

In recent years, the call for quality education has been on the rise. At the same time, the tourism industry has expanded to various fields in terms of development space. As a new type of tourism product and format that adapts to the development of global tourism, research travel has quickly attracted widespread attention from all walks of life with the “education + tourism” model.

Study tours sprouted around 1998, and mainly developed English-based study tours through the cooperation of travel agencies and colleges. From 2005 to 2012, it began to step into the resource guide, and parks with the theme of research began to appear in China, and tourism agencies also launched travel products with education as the core, but these did not form a large scale. It can be said that during the more than ten years between the embryonic stage and the resource-oriented stage, research and study travel did not detonate the market.

The turning point was in 2013, when the General Office of the State Council issued the “National Tourism and Leisure Outline (2013-2020)” and introduced the idea of ​​”gradually implementing study tours for primary and secondary school students”. Since then, the country has launched pilot research and study tours in various places, and the market has quickly entered the product forming period. After 2014, research travel is an important form of developing tourism development space, and the State Council issued important instructions on research travel in the “Several Opinions on Promoting the Reform and Development of Tourism Industry”. In the “Opinions on Promoting Study Travel for Primary and Secondary School Students”, the inclusion of study travel in the teaching plan of primary and secondary schools clarifies the important role of study travel in the education industry and has become a key point to detonate the market.

It is true that the research and study travel industry is more aggressive in stimulating the economy. After 2014, the number of research trips increased sharply. In 2017, the total number of research trips reached 4.25 million, and the income has doubled since 2015. The first echelon companies of research and study travel, such as Century Mingde and Mingzhu Tourism, have successfully listed on the “New Third Board” and won the favor of the capital market.

However, in the face of the emerging industry of research travel, the current market is more inclined to regard it as a tourism product, while ignoring its educational value. The main target audience of study tours are elementary and middle school students, so study products are different from conventional travel products, focusing on the needs of students for entertaining and teaching, and the organizers should reasonably arrange the proportion of “tour” and “study”.

For research and study travel destinations, we should not only focus on the landscape as an attraction, but also carry out special category education, safety education, tourism civilization education and living habits education that match the destination. Only when all the subjects involved in the study travel are oriented towards the ultimate result of entertaining and entertaining, can the study travel market continue to develop for a long time.

In this regard, we also invited several industry insiders to talk about their views from different angles.

Ouyang Yi, partner of Vanke Southern Meisha Outdoor Camp and general manager of Campfireworm

In the opinions jointly issued by the eleven ministries and commissions, there is a clear main task of strengthening the construction of research and study travel bases. Here, the research and study travel bases are actually similar to the camps we are doing. The curriculum of the research travel base is mainly divided into 6 categories: nature, history, geography, science and technology, humanities, and experience. In fact, in the initial course direction of our camp, there are already four directions: nature, outdoor, humanities and art, and public service, which have coincided with the course requirements of some research and travel bases. During this period of time, we have also been developing manual and technology STEAM courses, and all courses in the camp are experiential courses. Therefore, all the courses required by the study tour base can actually be developed and implemented in the camp.

Study tour is an established course, that is to say, there may be hundreds or thousands of participants at the same time, so for the camp, the first thing to undertake such a project is whether the reception capacity of the camp itself can be achieved, and the most attractive Educational institutions or schools should actually be supporting research products. Research products are highly regional and scene-based, especially when it comes to natural and geography courses that require very real scenes, they must be combined with the actual environment. Therefore, the research travel courses created by the camp also need to go out Camp, to the real scene to go.

In fact, research trips have high requirements on the level of teachers and course content. From the perspective of teachers, we focus on two aspects, one is the ratio of tutors, and the other is the professionalism of tutors. In addition to the project team leader, security officer, tour guide, and research tutor required by the “Research and Study Travel Service Specifications”, we allocate a research tutor for every 8-12 people in accordance with the requirements of the sociology group work, which is more than conventional personnel. The configuration is much higher. At the same time, our instructors have undergone strict training, and the staff have all been certified by the International Wilderness First Aid Association. Many instructors have been certified by many industry associations such as the China Dengban Association, the Asian Outdoor Education Association, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the World Camp Association. From the perspective of curriculum, in addition to our own employees having strong curriculum research and development capabilities, we have jointly developed with experts from major universities to establish a complete system of pre-departure filing, research courses, and emergency plans. The growth record system improves the evaluation system of the entire course.

As an extension and supplement of school education, study tours and camps have many similarities. In addition, comprehensive practical activities have recently been mentioned as an important position in the education system. In the future, study tours and camp education will surely become quality education and quality education. important carrier and means.

Hongxing, co-founder of Everkid Children’s Outdoor Education Institution

I think that taking children out of school is actually allowing them to have an open educational result and expand their thinking. If the camp is simply taken as the destination, it is a kind of theme travel in disguise at a superficial level, but at a deep level, this kind of research with a clear theme awareness is nothing more than an extension of classroom activities. I think what is actually lacking now is not the venue for study trips like camps, but the need to be able to turn the camp education model into a new teaching form that is easy for children to accept, and to gain more from traditional education.

Now there are not a few domestic camps that launch research travel service modules, but many camps actually reverse the concept. They first built some infrastructure, such as climbing frames, bicycle lanes and other sports facilities, classrooms, etc., without thinking about it. Subject content or theme of camp education. In the future, our organization will also select some camps with more suitable infrastructure for young people. The managers will cooperate with camps that have done a certain amount of work on the education level, and use our content and camp hardware to complement each other to build a better research and travel base.

There are also some camps that conduct camp education independently, so there may be a shortage of teachers. Now many outdoor education associations are doing camp education teacher classes, but usually they can get a certificate of completion in three to five days. For practitioners, this certificate can only prove that he has studied, but he has become a truly qualified camp education counselor. It is not something that can be learned in a crash course in two or three days. Therefore, the current domestic camp education is relatively lacking in the level of teachers and outdoor teaching courses.

Research trips into outdoor camps are beneficial to both the development of the camp and the innovation of education, so I hope practitioners can be more responsible and better combine camp operations with educational content. Cultivate or recruit teachers with good camp education experience, and create professional courses for study trips, so that young people can expand from psychological and behavioral to brand-new. The camp not only focuses on the supporting facilities, but also on the software, so that the camp can realize a real study tour.

Wang Qi, the founder of Wo Wo Chain Camp

As a type of destination for research and study travel, camps generally choose to cooperate with professional camp education institutions out of prudence in education. As hardware providers, camps intervene in the camp education market, equipped with closed-management student dormitories, and indoor comprehensive facilities for all seasons. Gymnasium, outdoor development facilities, comprehensive teaching facilities, etc. In order to meet the needs of camp education or study, we specially build educational camps to meet the needs of educational institutions.

The teaching staff of the study trip must have teachers from other schools, but the students they face are the same. Therefore, the teaching staff of outdoor education must also be professionals who are patient with children, understand communication, and understand scientific education methods. It is not impossible to do camp education by yourself, but you need to recruit a professional team of teachers and personnel to operate it. The courses should also be planned and designed according to the actual situation of the camp location, and the professional teaching and research team will carry out product development and implementation. If you cannot truly integrate into the education industry, you will not be able to meet the pain points and core needs of this market.

To a certain extent, research travel can solve the problem of uneven off-peak seasons in the camp industry, but the semi-public nature of research travel determines the fundamentals of exchanging quantity for price, which cannot be changed. Moreover, there is a set of standards and requirements completely different from the current camp industry in terms of product design and hardware support for research travel, which runs counter to the basic demands of the mainstream camp industry. In the short term, research travel will still be the stage for some educational camps led by the state, but It is not ruled out that private capital will gradually intervene in a period of time, especially private schools in first- and second-tier cities. The business of international schools will become more market-oriented.

Li Xuewei, General Manager of Beijing Yinglang Youxue Culture Consulting Co., Ltd.

I think camps and study tours can be very well combined and developed. Compared with the high cost of overseas study tours, the price of domestic study tours is more affordable. Camps are a very good carrier to get out of the campus. In addition, the camp also needs to introduce new business content to attract more consumer groups. The student market brought about by study tours is huge, and parents are now very happy to invest in children’s education. From the point of view of an education practitioner, I also hope that students can get something from the study trip, but this requires a more professional education team and courses in the camp.

From the classroom to the camp for research trips, the most important thing to supplement and enhance is the knowledge of nature. Many camps have unique natural landforms and rich plantings. Camps can carry out natural and geographical research trips. In addition, I think that outdoor sports should be vigorously developed in the camp. The advantage of the camp is that it can provide children with skiing, boating, flying sports and other conditions. They can not only master outdoor sports skills, but also exercise their bodies. The biggest point of difference in the classroom.

I think that if the camp wants to expand the education section, it should have the four aspects of housing, food, training, and living room, highlighting the group accommodation unit; green and healthy ingredients can increase the planting and picking links; provide places and equipment for physical exercise; be able to Indoor and outdoor venues for teaching. In addition, in terms of teachers, the camp must not only be equipped with professional subject education experts, but also have professional instructors for outdoor sports and a physical fitness management team. The camp can also focus on developing supporting systems for research and travel in different fields. New things, whether natural or cultural, can attract students, and the camp can also become a base for learning on the road.