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Student Travel Tips: Inspiring The Next Generation
Brighton, England, United Kingdom
Aim
To inspire & support students living, studying and working abroad. No more time-wasted on scouring the internet for the right information.
Check out our website Student Travel Tips.
By students, for students.
Our Mission:
We support students living, studying and working abroad. By providing detailed guides compiled of tried and tested tips, we make sure that every student is equipped with the best advice. That's accommodation, activities, nightlife, settling in, culture shock, getting around, mental health, money advice, local contacts, sustainable travel, safety and everything else in between. We provide all of this accurate, up-to-date information under one roof – no more time wasted on scouring the internet for the right information.
Moving to a foreign country presents new challenges, but hearing from someone who has done it themselves helps to calm the initial anxieties. Student Travel Tips has a large pool of first-hand blogs with everything a student needs before and during their adventure abroad.
Our story:
My name is Alfie Laurence and I studied Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Bristol. As part of my degree, I went on a year abroad where I studied in Valencia and worked in São Paulo, Brazil. When I arrived in Brazil, I spent ages surfing websites, using up my time and mobile data looking for ideas and advice. I wished for a website that would inspire me and give me resources and tips. I was surprised not to find an up-to-date website that shared the experiences of year abroad students, and so, in a sixty bedroom hostel, I came up with the idea for Student Travel Tips.
Over the past year, we've built a great community of student travellers, sharing their experiences – good and bad – and giving invaluable advice to others.
Why now? Why us?
By choosing to pledge in Student Travel Tips, you will become a part of this adventure, this story, this dream of mine. We believe in a better future for young people and we want you to believe in us.
Over the last six months, we have seen huge amounts of uncertainty: the struggle to find a job, the confusion of exams, from home, the algorithm used to grade them. We believe that travel is the best form of education and it has never been more important to promote the discovery of new cultures. There is a whole new world to explore, and we want to support the new generation of students as they do so.
As lockdown measures ease, it will take a lot of courage to go out and see the world. But Student Travel Tips is here to encourage and help young people on that journey.
Living abroad is a great way of equipping yourself with the skills and experience that are bound to impress future employers and motivate and mature you as a person. We aren't promoting reckless travel, partying in Thailand or voluntourism. We want young people to open their minds to what the world has to offer, to experience life away from the comfort zone of home and live life like a local abroad.
What will your money go towards?
- Fund New Website Design and Development – We are currently in the design process of building our new website, which will allow for many more capabilities of what we want to achieve. Squarespace is now limiting our growth and after being the web designer since the start, I want to pass it onto the experts!
- Collect data and market research – I’d like to approach university ambassadors who can highlight the brand through societies and student fairs. This will be a great service to people going on a year abroad and will widen our audience and engagement.
- Employ staff to manage content – I’d like the opportunity to pay my editor-in-chief, Lily Donnelly, and myself for the hard work we have put into this. I would also like to employ a digital marketing expert to accompany us through the next stage of growth at Student Travel Tips.
- Increase traffic to our website and social media pages – I will launch Facebook Ad campaigns to boost the flow of traffic to the website targeting specific demographics. A simple search on Google for ‘student travel advice’ and ‘travel advice for students’ brings Student Travel Tips above STA Travel, Student Universe and other competitors. We want to ensure this stays like this.
- Affiliate Advertising – building partnerships with organisations will be a priority. For instance, travel and medical insurance companies, airlines offering discounted flights and local hotels and tour operators. This will be our main avenues for monetisation.
What our viewers say:
"Student Travel Tips' blogs were the single most helpful and informal source for choosing year abroad options and that's what I needed." Daniel, 4th Year Spanish University of Manchester
"Whilst we are saturated with travel tips for backpackers passing through a place or for expats often with money, the student is often forgotten! STT is the perfect space for young people abroad who need help. Simple. It helped me so much!" Toby, recent graduate, Spanish & Portuguese University of Bristol
"I think it's such a great idea & will be useful to many students." Laura, 4th Year Spanish and Management, University of Bath
"The website was really useful when I went abroad to study. Without their tips I'd be totally overwhelmed by the Austrian bureaucracy! The bars and restaurants they suggested weren't bad either... Zak, University of London School of Advanced Study
Prize draw information:
NEW! £2 Prize Draw: Win a Bose SoundLink Revolve Speaker.
By entering the prize draw, you could be in with a chance of winning a Bose SoundLink Revolve Speaker worth £180. Only 50 tickets available. Winner to be announced on 30/9/20 by random number generator. 1 ticket per person. Good luck!
If you’d like to enter for free, please send a signed note with your name and phone number to Quay House, River Road, Arundel, BN189DF. You can also get in touch by emailing [email protected] with your address and your entry (this could be a message of good luck or a simple ‘I would like to enter the prize draw’)
Competition starts Sunday 20th September - Tuesday 29th September. Enter by donating £2. Competition run by Alfie Laurence. The winner will be asked for a delivery address to send the prize to.
Bose SoundLink Revolve Speaker
For more information, please don't hesitate to email me [email protected]
Thank you so much for your all your support, please pledge whatever you can.
1st place in the Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs Challenge
This project successfully funded on 29th September 2020