Make your trip headline news
The first thing you need to do is promote your trip around school. You'll need to create a real buzz around the trip and get students really excited about it. And make sure it's mentioned in school newsletters and on the school’s social media accounts too.
Limit the number of places on the trip
We know your instinct is to try to take as many students as possible, as you don’t want any to miss out. However, limiting the number of places available does introduce a competitive element which could actually see more students signing up.
Make your trip as affordable as possible
With rising costs everywhere, the more affordable you can make your trip, the more likely students will be able to join you.
Planning your trip way in advance is one way to do this (‘cos you’ll be giving parents so much longer to pay for it). And taking your trip outside of peak travel times (avoiding school holidays, basically) is another great way to save money. For more advice on keeping costs down, see our money-saving tips for cheaper school trips.
Avoid the competition from other trips
If your school’s running any other trips that are likely to be popular with your target pool of students, make sure you avoid arranging your trip for the same time. And if you know that’s going to be impossible (perhaps because your school has strict rules around when you can arrange trips), then get in earlier with yours so students commit to your trip before the competition from others even starts.
Highlight the educational benefits of your trip to parents
At the end of the day, it will be parents who decide whether or not to send their kids on your trip. So, getting parents on board is essential. The key thing is making sure they know how your trip is going to benefit their children. So, make the educational value clear in all your comms to parents. And don’t forget to mention the other developmental benefits of your trip, like increasing independence and responsibility.
Open the trip up to students from other year groups
If you’re struggling to get enough students from your target year group(s), you could open the trip up to those in other years.
One obvious benefit of this could be for younger students who haven’t yet chosen their options for GCSE or A Levels. The trip could convince them to take your subject further – which could be a huge win for your department.
Make your trip cross-curricular
Another great way to widen the target pool of students for your trip is to make it cross-curricular.
Because our Travel Advisers know the destinations we travel to so well, they can advise you on visits and activities to suit all the subjects covered by your trip.
Next steps
With these tips and pointers, we hope it’ll be a cinch getting the numbers for your school trip. And if not, don’t fret. Just get in touch and we’ll see what else we can suggest.