Desire for student travel unlikely to be affected

The San Francisco crash is unlikely to affect the hot market for overseas study tours aimed at Chinese students, said education industry insiders.

The number of Chinese students traveling to study camps overseas during the vacation period has boomed in recent years, especially to the US, said Ren Dehong, South China marketing manager at Amber Education, a Hong Kong-based education-counseling service.

It's very likely that we will receive calls from concerned parents who have recently sent, or will soon send, their children to join study tours overseas. But our business will not suffer a setback, because accidents such as this are extremely rare," he said.

Beijing resident, Li Junde, 43, said on Sunday that he still plans to send his 13-year-old son to Florida on a three-week study trip in August.

"The plan will not change because of the air crash," he said.

Li said it will be the first time his son has been parted from parents and lived overseas on his own. "I hope it will be a good chance to deepen his knowledge and improve his language skills. Moreover, he can learn how to live independently," he said.

An increasing number of Chinese parents now support their children joining overseas study tours during the vacation period, helping to promote a global perspective among the younger generation.

"In addition to the United States, Australia and European countries are also hot spots for short study tours. Some parents use these trips to see if their children can adapt and live overseas on their own, before deciding to send them to study abroad on a longer-term basis," said one education industry professional who declined to give his name.