Travel and youth

Why young people are undertaking they travel and what do they take? As they leave to see the world, work or study, have fun and meet people, young travelers come back with much more than achieving their original objectives. Their journeys open their new horizons, develop their confidence in them and, most importantly, towards to show more tolerance and trust cultures and different peoples of their own.

There are no set guidelines for the youth market: everyone has different age groups. It is also increasingly difficult to link the concept of "youth" at specific ages since on the one hand, young people are traveling more and earlier and, on the other hand, they study longer, marry later and remain "young" longer. The most inclusive age group is that of people aged 16-35 years.

This analysis presents the motivations and benefits regarding youth travel from a study by the World Tourism Organization, which itself takes surveys conducted by World Youth Student & Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation. Questionnaires were sent to customers of some 550 member companies of this group. The latter are interested in youth tourism; they offer exchange programs, hosting youth, Student Flights, travel insurance, student cards and language programs. Members of WYSE Travel Confederation provide services to more than 10 million youth and students each year. The sample of respondents therefore has a higher proportion of individuals participating in an exchange program, study or work abroad for all young people who travel.