The last few years have been challenging for everyone, especially for experiential education providers. On the one hand, I feel like we made the best of the situation. We developed new programs in new locations, closer to school campuses. We also used some of the unexpected downtime to improve our internal systems. We standardized our staff training programs, held at the beginning of each season. We upgraded both our internal IT system and the registration portal utilized by students and parents. Finally, we spent time enhancing our standard operating procedures, child protection guidelines, and health and safety protocols.
Still, there was no getting around the fact that we were operating in conditions that were from ideal, in which the survival of this industry was far from assured. Thus, we felt immensely relieved when China lifted most of its COVID restrictions, and despite some initial uncertainty, I think we are all feeling quite hopeful about the future.
We are most excited about being able to resume our flagship programs in some of China’s most beautiful regions, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Fujian, and others – which had been rendered impractical for most schools during the height of the pandemic. Sure enough, fully half of the schools we work with are now planning trips that will involve flights or high-speed trains.
In closing, I would just like to once again thank our clients, many of whom continued to organize trips throughout the pandemic, despite the headaches, general uncertainty, and ever-present risk of cancellation.
Likewise, our staff endured tremendous financial uncertainty during the pandemic, and I’m grateful to those that decided to weather the storm and remain in this industry. Speaking of which, we are aggressively recruiting for our spring season, so please get in touch if you’d like to join the best team of experiential educators in China!
