This article was produced by National Geographic Traveler (UK).
The gap year has remained pretty much the same for decades: cheap hostels, all-night parties, banana pancakes and months of “self-discovery”. Add bungee jumping, quad biking, moped riding and days spent doing absolutely nothing, and the classic image of the legendary “gap year” of old quickly emerges.
But today's gap year travelers are more likely to do sunrise yoga on the beach before their volunteer assignment, and are more likely to spend their evenings sitting around a campfire discussing the day's work while herbal tea boils on the stove, rather than getting drunk.
While a gap year was once synonymous with someone taking time off between high school and college, or after earning a degree, it has evolved into a catch-all term to include anyone looking for an escape before starting work. And the post-pandemic era is seeing the biggest shift in student travel desires and motivations in the past 50 years, according to Student Universe, the world's largest travel agency for young people.
While purely “leisure” activities such as flying, adventure trips and festivals still exist on the market, educational and professional travel are dominating among gap year students.
“Their main goal is to act ethically and responsibly,” says Millie Whitehead, co-founder of gap year travel company The Leap. “We've seen a huge increase in demand for volunteer programs and trips with well-planned itineraries.”
“They are far more insightful and particular about the finer details of what the trip will involve than what we’ve seen in the past, and their real aim is to add something to their CV and future value for UCAS in their year. [Universities and Colleges Admissions Service] shape. “
Whitehead says that's a marked change from a decade ago, when most gap year travelers would hop from place to place until their savings dried up and they returned home. Her assessment is in line with findings from Student Universe's latest annual report, “The State of Student and Youth Travel 2024,” which surveyed 6,000 Gen Zers (generally defined as those born between the mid-1990s and late 2000s) in the UK, US, Canada and Australia to assess their motivations for travel.
According to the report, the majority of Gen Z believes taking a gap year will improve their chances of finding work in their home country.
Photo: Luis Alvarez, Getty Images
The research suggests that the main reason 79% of people travel is that the experience will improve their employability. This is a theme that runs throughout the report, with some 87% saying they believe professional travel will improve their employability, and 86% saying they would volunteer on a project related to their ideal future career path.
Gemma Gore-Booth, 21, says about half of her classmates at Emmanuel School in south-west London decided to take a gap year before going to university. “Taking a gap year was the norm,” she says. “Five of my nine best friends went travelling. I worked as a teaching assistant in London to save up money, then volunteered as an English teacher in Sri Lanka for a month before travelling to Thailand and Vietnam.”
When Gore-Booth left for a year of study abroad in 2021, strict COVID-19 measures were still in place, especially in Asia, and the threat of further restrictions loomed. Despite those risks, she says, studying abroad online was more appealing than studying online. And she had always intended to study abroad for a year. “I didn't want to do my college degree online, but I was also worried about the travel situation,” she says.
Gore Booth is no exception: latest figures show that more British teenagers studying GCSEs and A-levels during the pandemic are choosing to take a gap year before continuing further education than ever before. UCAS figures released when A-level results were released last summer showed that more than 73,000 students had applied to defer their start date for a year, an increase of around 10% on the previous year.
Fly Around
One of the biggest changes Whitehead has seen in the 20 years since she founded The Leap with her husband Guy is the pace at which people want to travel. “You really need a pace to keep everyone focused and energized,” she says. “God knows how you kept people entertained for eight weeks in the old days. You'd go and teach school in the morning and do something else in the afternoon, and everything was a lot slower. That doesn't work anymore.” She adds, “Now you have to keep busy with different projects, different adventures. Every day has to be different.”
Experiences offered by The Leap include volunteering with organizations like Oceans Alive Trust, a nonprofit that works to reverse coral decline and boost fish stocks, beach cleanups in Costa Rica and supporting a community reforestation project in Barichara, Colombia. Most programs average about five weeks and include language study as well as training in skills like diving.
The demand for more structured programs is a trend Student Universe has embraced. “There's been a bit of a shift in the aspirations of younger travelers who think, 'Let's hop on a plane and see what life is like,'” says Sam Whelan, vice president of global marketing. “Maybe it was blissful ignorance, but now travelers definitely want to be looked after more.”
Whelan said the company has also seen a growing trend of young people taking several shorter trips during their gap year, rather than one longer adventure, which typically follow a similar pattern of study leave, work or volunteer trip, then travel.
Latin American countries are becoming more popular among gap year travelers, while Southeast Asian countries are declining in popularity.
Photo by Dmitry Luklenko, Getty Images
“It really comes down to career development,” he says. “Gap workers are motivated to gain experience that will add value to their resumes while also developing themselves as culturally savvy and well-rounded people.”
When participants in the State of Student and Youth Travel 2024 survey were asked “What attracts you to going on holiday?” partying and clubbing came in last, chosen by only 21% of the 6,000 respondents. Topping the list was sightseeing and urban activities (70%), followed by experiencing different cultures (68%) and relaxing and rejuvenating (61%).
Whelan says gap year operators are also reporting a subtle shift in the countries people are choosing to go to, with the once-popular Southeast Asian destinations – particularly Laos, Thailand and Vietnam – falling out of favour in favour of countries such as India, South Africa, Brazil and Peru.
Whitehead reports a similar trend, with destinations that were among the first to lift COVID-19 entry restrictions benefiting from an increase in student travelers. “Latin America was one of the first to reopen post-pandemic and really take off,” Whitehead says. “In recent years, we've seen word of mouth spread throughout the school year as more students travel.
“It feels like there's more geographical contrast than Southeast Asia. Take Peru for example: one day you can be in the Andes, the next day the Amazon and the next day Rainbow Mountain.”
According to working holiday specialist travel agency Jenza, Australia, New Zealand and Canada stand out when it comes to working holidays, in part because they are Commonwealth countries, making them open to young travellers from the UK.
Britain signed agreements with all three countries last year to expand its Youth Mobility Scheme visas, raising the age limit from 30 to 35 and the maximum period of stay from two to three years.
“Working holidays are becoming more accessible to young people today because they break down the arguably biggest barrier to entry – money,” says Lucy Lynch of Jenza. But today's students have more limited options than before. Villa staff, chalet ladies and gentlemen, resort managers, childminders and sailing instructors were all mainstays of package holidays in the UK and hugely popular gap year jobs – until Brexit.
Britain's departure from the EU has made it harder for young people to go abroad to work, and reduced the services available to holidaymakers: a recent report by industry bodies ABTA and Seasonal Businesses in Travel (SBiT) predicts the number of Britons working in tourism overseas will fall from 11,970 in 2017 to just 3,700 by 2023.
SBiT says this has disproportionately affected young people who have traditionally taken up such seasonal work – working for holiday companies during their year-round holidays or summer breaks – and it has also had a major impact on chalet holidays, popular with British skiers, which rely heavily on gap year staff willing to work for less pay in exchange for a bed, meals and a season's lift pass.
SBiT managing director Charles Owen said: “Hiring the British staff needed to run a business in the EU is proving to be extremely difficult. In some countries there is a mountain of complicated paperwork, delays and additional costs to overcome, and in others there is no practically viable route.”
ABTA is calling for strengthening the seasonal mobility agreement between the UK and the EU for tourist workers, as current arrangements only apply to certain jobs and limit stays to 90 days. It also urges the UK government to lobby for the extension of the Youth Mobility Scheme to the EU.
“There's nothing to stop us doing this,” says Luke Petherbridge, ABTA's director of communications. “It's mutually beneficial, particularly for individuals who join the scheme and are able to live and work overseas. Importantly, this is not part of the wider immigration scheme. The mobility scheme does not give people who join the scheme any right to long-term residence.”
Many in the travel industry hope that the change of government will lead to closer ties with the EU, opening the way for young British people to work in the EU without having to go through expensive bureaucratic procedures that many travel companies cannot afford. SBiT estimates that the cost of recruiting young people from the UK as seasonal workers in France (the UK's most popular ski resort) has risen by £880.
One of the biggest decisions gap year students face is how to fund their overseas adventure. According to a survey by recruitment firm Teaching Abroad, one in five young people rely on their parents to pay for their year abroad. But some are independent. Minnie Fisher, 18, is currently on a five-month trip through New Zealand, Australia and Southeast Asia. She paid for her trip by working from last summer until she left in January.
“It's been hard but worth it,” she says from the Indonesian island of Nusa Penida, near Bali. “After finishing my A-levels last year I worked almost full-time in a local cafe and did a lot of babysitting. In all I saved £11,000. I spent £3,000 on flights and had £8,000 left in the bank, but I hope to finish the trip with at least £2,000 left.”
Gore-Booth plans to work for another year after completing her degree at Newcastle University. “There has to be an element of earning money no matter what,” she says. “I'd like to be able to contribute in some way to my CV and future jobs. I'm thinking of doing TEFL. [Teaching English as a Foreign Language] “I think it would be a fantastic experience to complete the course and then go and teach English in a place like Vietnam.”
Featured in the June 2024 issue of National Geographic Traveler (UK).
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