Overseas study tours have been growing in popularity in recent years, with the average age of participating students skewing ever younger. Parents see the trips as a warm-up for the overseas education they hope to give their children down the road. However, some students who join such tours have trouble opening up to foreigners to practice their English. Others see the trips as little more than opportunities for sightseeing and shopping. Consequently, questions have emerged about students' willingness to mix with locals and their ability to take these trips seriously. Still, the business of organizing overseas study tours has proved to be profitable, spawning a proliferation of overseas summer programs and making the entire industry more commercial. Against this backdrop, an expert advises parents to take their children's interests into account when choosing an overseas study tour.
On Sunday morning, 15-year-old Chen Zuomin said goodbye to his parents at the Beijing Capital International Airport as he was about to board a flight to London.
After 13 hours in the air, his plane landed at Heathrow Airport. From there, Chen and 29 other middle school students from Beijing, Tianjin and North China's Hebei Province will begin a 15-day summer study tour in the UK.
According to their schedule, the students take English classes offered by local educational institutions every morning. In the afternoons, they go sightseeing, which includes trips to some of the UK's world-class universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge. At night, the students have an opportunity to spend time with their host families.
The trip costs Chen's parents around 40,000 yuan ($6,032), but they believe the experience will be worth the price. "We're planning to book another study trip to another English-speaking country next summer, probably the US," Chen's mother said.
With the rise of China's middle class, overseas study tours have exploded in popularity, especially during the summer vacation. The tours typically last for two to three weeks and involve visits to prestigious universities, classes at local educational camps and homestays with local host families.
"I have personally experienced the industry's explosive growth," said Huang Qian, a local tour guide for a UK-based educational institution who leads Chen's group.
"Five years ago, I led four overseas study groups during the entire summer vacation, but now my summer schedule is booked up, with Chen's group being the seventh group I have led since June."
Huang's take on the industry was echoed by Michael Lu, a senior vice president of multinational education company EF International Language Center, who said that some of their overseas summer camps filled up back in April.
According to a report that education company New Oriental sent to the Global Times on Tuesday, the number of Chinese students going on overseas study tours hit 300,000 in 2015.
The company said the first overseas study tour from China took place in 2005. By 2015, Chinese families were spending 10 billion yuan a year on the tours. The report projected that the market will expand by an annual rate of 20 percent over the next five years.
Moreover, overseas study tours have been attracting more younger students, Lu said.
The trend has given rise to a new "parent-child" study tour, designed especially for children aged 4 to 12, said the report.
High hopes
A 35-year-old mother in Beijing surnamed Yang is one of the parents who will tag along with her 9-year-old son to an overseas summer study camp in the UK.
"It's a preparation for my son's future education in the UK," Yang told the Global Times on Monday.
"Hopefully, my son will be attracted to the academic atmosphere of the world-class universities he visits. After he returns, he will be inspired to study hard and get admitted into one of them."
Yang's words reflect the thoughts among many parents. They also hope the experience will help their children better understand foreign cultures and foreign languages.
"By immersing my son in an authentic English-speaking environment, both his spoken and written English will greatly improve," Chen's mother said.
However, it remains to be seen whether a tour's promises can live up to parents' expectations.
After his first few days in the UK, Chen complained that the morning English class was too long and too boring, a teacher on the tour surnamed Li told the Global Times. Chen preferred the afternoons, when he could go shopping and take photos.
Although Chinese students stay with a local family during the trip, some are reluctant to speak with their hosts, Huang told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that the students are either too shy or believe their English isn't good enough. "But if they close the door on interacting with locals, how can they practice their English?" Huang asked.
Getting commercial
The price of a summer overseas tour generally ranges between 25,000 yuan to 45,000 yuan, depending on its length and destination, according to a statement EF sent the Global Times.
Given how expensive they are, overseas study tours are quite lucrative, according to an industry insider who preferred not to be named.
For example, the price for a two-week group tour to the UK is 23,000 yuan, which includes the costs of the flight, the visa, the hotel accommodations and activities, according to an offer on Ctrip's website.
Yet the average price of a study tour to the UK - 40,000 yuan - is nearly double the cost of a group tour, though it also includes all of the educational expenses.
"The cost of summer sessions depends on its quality and the reputation of the educational institution," said the insider, "which leaves a large profit margin for the organizers, who can sometimes earn 10,000 yuan in profit on each student on the trip."
The huge profits, combined with explosive demand, has spawned a proliferation of overseas summer programs, with non-academic institutions like travel agencies and consulting companies jumping into the market.
Due to the low barriers of entry, the quality of overseas study camps is uneven and the market remains unregulated, experts noted.
For example, some tours have become far too commercial, said Ma Luting, a research fellow at the National Education Development Research Center, who noted that some tours put luxury shopping trips ahead of academic pursuits.
Ma advised parents to make sure they sign up for trips that fit their children's interests.
On the whole, Ma believes the tours are good for students. "As the ancient Chinese saying goes - 'it's better to travel 10,000 miles than to read 10,000 books,'" he said.
