'Last year Xplore welcomed thousands of students from over 26 different countries worldwide for everything from summer language courses in the UK, high school placements in the USA and class trips to Germany.
In order to recruit students from so many countries we travel the world to find like-minded partners to represent Xplore and promote our programmes in their markets. Following several European visits, myself and the company’s managing director, Lewi, set off to the Far East last month, landing in South Korea before heading to Japan for an educational and study abroad networking workshop organised by ‘Alphe’. Despite attracting students from all over the world Xplore is still relatively new to markets such as these and such events organised by ‘Alphe’ provide us with a great opportunity to meet potential new study abroad and language travel partners. They also enable us to gain a better understanding of the requirements of the student market and the current trends in studying abroad.
First stop, Seoul. It was a frosty start with temperatures below zero but the friendly atmosphere that welcomed us soon warmed things up. While these trips are tightly scheduled with meetings and travel, we’re always keen to gain cultural insight by experiencing the local culture for ourselves. Located on the outskirts of the popular district of Itaewon, we wrapped up and set off downtown to sample the bright lights where east meets west via a variety of English and German style pubs and lots of choice from Asian cuisine including sushi, Chinese and Thai for the foodies. But you can’t visit Korea without sampling one of their famous barbecues and we were fortunate enough to be treated to one by one of our local partners. Thankfully on arrival they quickly bag and store your coat away from the bbq smoke while you dive in to a feast of various meats, kimchee and dipping sauces!
The next morning it was down to business with a series of one-to-one meetings with potential agents looking for new and exciting programmes to offer their student market. With only 30 minutes per meeting to make an impression we present a overview of Xplore’s varied product range and while it's intense with such a short time slot per meeting, fortunately our industry is well versed in doing business in English. Not only do these events present a great opportunity to meet potential customers they also allow us to meet similar companies with whom we can share ideas and experiences. Once the two days of meetings were finished it was straight back to the airport that afternoon for our flight to Tokyo with new friends from Kilgraston School in Scotland and Communicate Language School in Manchester.
Tokyo is certainly one of my favourite places in the world - clean, friendly, vibrant and the food is incredible! Our third visit to Tokyo, following two previous research trips, we decided this time to attend the Alphe workshop with a view to meeting new agents and were guided well by Alphe’s staff who were very supportive throughout the event. Arriving late Tuesday evening and keen to see come of the city, we rose early, donned our running gear and set off attempting to navigate our way to the Emperor’s Palace. What began as a four mile jog ended up 7 mile run around but gave us amazing views of the city early morning. Showered and breakfasted we were straight to business with a pre-arranged meeting across the city before the workshop in the afternoon.The format for the Tokyo workshop mirrored Seoul and once again we met many companies working in the student language travel sector, gaining further insight in to the Japanese student market and the programmes they’re most interested in. On the last day with meetings over, we found time to visit a company we met on our first trip to Tokyo in 2012 and have subsequently become good friends with and our last afternoon meeting culminated in a traditional Japanese feast and sampling the local saki!
There’s no doubt that these networking trips provide a great opportunity to meet industry people from both sides of the table. The sharing of ideas and learning of market trends and student requirements is invaluable and experiencing cultures first hand goes even further to help our understanding of how Xplore can provide suitable programmes for everyone.'
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