Global Travel and Tourism Partnership sees student numbers soar

The Global Travel and Tourism Partnership (GTTP) has seen student numbers almost double since 2019 thanks to working with technology partners, Equator Global and Travel Uni.

The educational charity taught about 400,000 students in 2019 but in the past year alone it has seen more than 750,000.

Students aged 16 to 19 can take its free travel educational courses, in 18 countries, ranging from the UK, US and Canada to Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Philippines.

The major expansion has been achieved through the development of the GTTP e-learning portal created by travel trade training specialist Equator Global.

This has significantly boosted the charity’s reach to rural communities in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia including India. Nepal has become the latest country to receive access to the platform.

Students can access the courses online on any device or teachers can download them as printouts for pupils who do not have online devices.

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Ian Dockreay, chief executive of Equator Global and its subsidiary Travel Uni said: “This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Travel Uni, and working in partnership with GTTP in recent years has added so much to our broader educational remit for the travel industry.

“It allows us to contribute so much to the students’ whole journey, from reaching them when they are considering travel as a career option, through providing them with further education advice and contacts, to their choosing which area of the industry they can and would like to seek employment in.

“This partnership programme is all about contributing to the future generations of our industry.”

Anne Lotter, global director of GTTP, said: “Ian Dockreay and the team have worked tirelessly to provide the technological infrastructure and worldwide distribution to bring our courses to even the most inaccessible places on earth.

“Communities far and wide have benefited from our greatly enhanced ability to deliver our life-changing knowledge and we and our global partners are delighted by how this has transformed the organisation.”

The course content ranges from information on why to consider the industry for future careers through to the importance of providing responsible and sustainable travel experiences for travellers.

A total of 3,500 schools and educational establishments and more than 4,500 teachers and educators now benefit from the real-time online delivery of e-learning provided by the GTTP Portal, across 16 regional offices around the world.