With the arrival of summer vacation, major tourism platforms and travel agencies have launched new "research and study tours" products, from museum discovery tours to exploring natural parent-child activities, and then to overseas study tours, and the popularity of "research and study tours" across the country continues to rise this year.
However, the popularity of "study tours" also requires some cold thinking. From the perspective of history, the "research tour" scenic spot is crowded, the queue is "far away", the exhibition hall listens to lectures and learns into "sitting on the ground and playing games", and the phenomenon of insufficient supply of resources and lack of high-quality services in some cultural and tourism venues and research institutions is constantly exposed. Parents frequently report that their children participate in "research tours" that "only travel but do not learn".
What is the state of the "study tour" market this year? What other tourist destinations are popular for "study tours"? There are many routines of "research and study tours", how to avoid pitfalls?
There are various forms of "study tours".
Natural science popularization and labor education "research and study tours" are popular
Located in Kunming, Yunnan Province, the Stone Forest Global Geopark is known as the "First Wonder of the World" and the "Stone Forest Museum". Relying on the unique climatic conditions and unique karst landform wonders, as well as advantageous resources such as biodiversity and national culture, the research courses and practical activities here attract many young people in the summer. In the process of research, students experienced the magic of nature, learned about the formation process of karst landforms, and explored the magical mysteries of the earth.
Zhang Ruyan, a research student, said that here you can learn about things that are not in textbooks and make your knowledge system more perfect. For example, she saw the vertical upward stones in the "Daoshan Fire Sea" scenic spot, and then learned that it was formed by long-term dissolution of rainwater.
From theme parks to museums, from historical and cultural districts to tourist attractions, in recent years, "research tours" have become more and more popular among parents and children. The forms of "study tours" are also becoming more and more diverse, for example, some places are actively exploring new formats of "culture + education + tourism", and some places are actively developing local market resources. Since the development of "study tours", it has long been not limited to the traditional historical and cultural fields, but covers different fields such as art, sports, creativity, and agriculture.
At a farm in Yunzhou District, Datong City, Shanxi Province, students from Xihanling School in Datong, Shanxi Province are participating in the process of transplanting and picking yellow flowers, and experiencing the production process of flower paper and yellow flower lip balm.
Some students said that they experienced many things that they could not experience in ordinary life, such as papermaking, cake making, plant rubbing, etc., which could broaden their horizons.
Relying on the characteristic resources of Huanghua, this farm has set up a practical curriculum system based on popular science education, nature education, labor education, life aesthetic education, and moral and physical education. Children can explore the mysteries of nature here, experience the process of soil improvement, organic planting, ecological fertilizer production and more.
Zhao Jingqi, a research teacher at the farm, said that now that it has entered the peak tourist season, the farm has to receive a research group of about 1,000 people every day, and the research teachers will set up high-quality courses related to yellow flowers. In addition to these, the farm will also set up some different aesthetic education labor, as well as popular science and scientific research courses.
The popularity of summer "research tours" continues to rise
"Parent-child travel" and "textbook travel" have become new hot spots
Chen Linan, director of the public affairs department of a travel ticketing platform, said that in addition to the traditional "research tour" this summer, the "parent-child research tour" with the family is also becoming more and more popular.
- Parent-child users are the absolute main force of summer travel, accounting for 48% of parent-child users for domestic travel and 52% for outbound travel.
- The "parent-child research tour" product increased by nearly seventy percent year-on-year, and the price was basically the same as last year;
- Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other places are all popular domestic study destinations, and some popular routes have been sold out.
In addition, Chen Linan also said that many students chose to come to a graduation "research tour" this summer, and started a "textbook tour" with friends and classmates to enjoy the great rivers and mountains of the motherland.
In this regard, Chen Linan's Internet platform customized a "textbook tour" travel product, and the intended orders in June increased by 103% compared with May, of which the destinations shown in the sixth-grade text "Grassland" and the fourth-grade text "Colorful Pool" were the most popular.
△ The article "Colorful Pool" in the fourth-grade Chinese textbook of the People's Education Edition tells about the landscape of the colorful pool in the Huanglong Scenic Area of Aba in Sichuan.
The overall study tour orders of the "post-00s" in the summer increased by more than 5% year-on-year, accounting for an increase of 0.3 percentage points. It is expected that after the admission notice is issued in July, many prospective college students will also go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an and other cities where colleges and universities are concentrated.
The Consumer Protection Committee reminds that there is a lot of chaos in "research and study tours".
It is necessary to take a correct view of the role of research and study and carefully select research institutions
Third-party statistics show that the market size of research and learning will be 146.9 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected that by 2026, the market size will reach 242.2 billion yuan. Behind the expansion of the "study tour" market, the number of research travel agencies has surged, and the products promoted are also diverse, and many problems have been exposed.
For a long time, there have always been parents who have reported that "the design of the research itinerary is unreasonable, and the child passively becomes a special soldier", "the in-depth tour of a famous school becomes a group photo at the school gate" and other problems. What's even more outrageous is that some institutions have recently illegally charged high tour fees in the name of "supporting teaching and research groups" and "public welfare projects", which completely deviates from the original intention of research.
According to the survey report on research travel consumption previously released by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, there are some problems in research travel, such as:
- "Traveling but not learning", the research effect does not meet expectations;
- The quality and price do not match, and some merchants are suspected of false publicity;
- The safety guarantee is insufficient, and there are hidden worries about travel and accommodation;
- Teachers are suspicious, and tutors' behavior needs to be regulated.
In this regard, the Consumer Protection Committee organized the issuance of research and tourism consumption tips: choose a research institution with formal operation and complete qualifications, read the contract carefully, and pay attention to important terms. Correctly view the role of research and study, consume rationally and moderately, retain consumption vouchers, and actively protect rights in accordance with the law.
(Source: Voice of China, China Central Radio and Television)