Holidays Can Be For Many Reasons- Learning Tourism
Renting out holiday cottages in the UK has now reached a point where more and more enquiries are coming in from abroad. Most people who visit the UK, who can afford to stay in private holiday cottages, have English skills that get them along. However there is a growing trend of “learning tourism".
What is Learning tourism?
Very simply put people take extended holidays and learn something at the same time. One recent example was a family from the Maldives. They came to the UK for a holiday to enjoy the countryside in the Lake District, but they also used the experience to expand their English skills for the kids and learn about culture and slang for the adults.
The family who we helped to house in a lovely cottage for a couple of weeks actually started off in the city. They flew into Manchester Airport and then we arranged for them to stay in Manchester city centre for a week. Whilst there they attended a Manchester English school for private lessons.
We booked them in just close to Manchester’s China Town as they also wanted to try and get more acquainted with the Chinese people and language. Chinese tourism has exploded around the world and there is a language barrier. We could not arrange any schooling but they literally stayed next door to China Town. Apparently they soon found some help after a few meals in the many delicious restaurants.
Anyway back to our plan. We booked them in at a versatile English school who gave the kids a new curriculum to work on whilst in the Lake District. The adults were almost already fluent so it was a case of giving them a taste of British and Mancunian culture. This involved learning slang and the Manchester accent, with an emphasis on how it varies in different regions across the UK.
It was all very casual and part time. After a week in Manchester we put them on a train up north to the Lake District where we had a stunning holiday cottage waiting. Over the next 12 days they did their homework, whilst enjoying the region.
This was a rather wealthy family who have a popular resort in the Maldives. they said the holiday was the most rewarding one they had every taken. This was because they learned as well as relaxed. They even found the cold fund, which I found off as it was just a few days ago that we said good bye in January 2015.
They got to see some snow too, which was like the icing in the cake, no pun intended but what a pun, if you imagine the peaks in the lake District. For a family who live in the tropics seeing real snow was a once in a lifetime business.
Anyway this has opened up our eyes to new ideas for tourism going forwards. Anyone living in the UK who is interested in tourism should consider learning Chinese as their travel market is expanding fast. Our Maldivian clients have made a little progress with the two contacts they made and are already planning a similar trip to China next year.
The Maldives has been long known as the honeymoon capital of the world, so I was delighted when they offered us a healthy discount. I proposed last year but things haven’t always been steady, so this could be the break we need to be able to afford a great honeymoon.