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Thailand shows cautious growth
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Thailand's language travel industry is looking fairly healthy according to the results of our Agency Survey, although economic factors are still affecting the market.
| Key points |
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The total number of students placed by the 12 agencies in our survey was 1,648
Individual agencies placed between eight and 620 students on courses per year
Average business growth was eight per cent in the last 12 months
The average length of stay for Thai students was 17.3 weeks
Overall, 70 per cent of Thai students stayed in host family accommodation when studying overseas
Four agencies charged their clients a handling fee of between B1,000 (US$26) and B3,000 (US$79)
On average, agencies had worked with 33 schools in the last 12 months
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| Top destinations |
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Most popular courses |
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1. Australia 27%
2. UK 25%
2. USA 25%
4. New Zealand 11%
5. Canada 9%
6. Singapore 2%
7. Switzerland 0.5%
8. Italy 0.1%
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1. Intensive 40%
2. Academic prep. 25%
3. General 21%
4. Summer vacation 8%
5. Business 2%
5. Lang + work. 2%
7. Junior 1%
Other 1% |
| Reasons for language travel |
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Top languages |
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1. Studies overseas 70%
2. Future work 11%
3. Current work 9%
4. Studies at home 6%
5. Pleasure 3.5%
6. Other 0.5%
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1. English 99.1%
2. French 0.7%
3. Italian 0.1%
Other 0.1%
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How do agencies recruit students?
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How do agencies find new schools to represent? |
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Word of mouth 53%
Website 15%
Advertising in press 10%
Seminars to students 8%
Mail shots 7%
Other 7%
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Fairs/expos 41%
LTM/ETM 19%
Workshops 17%
Internet 11%
Other 12%
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| Percentage of agents who recognised each of the following organisations |
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Australia
Acpet 55%
English Australia 64%
Canada
Capls 36%
CLC 45%
France
Souffle 0%
L'Office 0%
Unosel 0%
FLE 0%
Ireland
MEI~Relsa 27%
IEAI 0%
Italy
Asils 0%
Italian in Italy 9%
Malta
Feltom 0%
New Zealand
Ed. NZ 36%
English NZ 55%
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Portugal
Aeple 0%
South Africa
Eltasa 0%
English NZ 0%
Spain
Fedele 0%
UK
ABLS 27%
English UK 55%
British Council 91%
Europe
Eaquals 0%
USA
AAIEP 45%
Accet 45%
CEA 45%
UCIEP 45%
International
Ialc 27%
Quality English 18%
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Market growth
Average business growth was just over eight per cent among the agencies participating in this year’s Agency Survey on Thailand, an increase on the one per cent growth of last year (see Language Travel Magazine, May 2005, pages 14-15). The majority of agents indicated that their business had grown over the last 12 months by between 10 and 30 per cent, although two agents said that business had stayed the same and a further three said that they had experienced a decrease in student numbers in the last year of between five and 20 per cent. Some agencies pointed out that rising oil costs had had a negative effect on their business recently, due to increasing flight costs deterring students from studying overseas.
Language and destination trends
A massive 99 per cent of students visiting these agencies sought English language courses over the last 12 months and no fewer than eight agencies said that all their clients chose English-speaking destinations. One agency reported that 20 per cent of their business was dealing with clients wanting to study French and another 20 per cent with clients wanting Italian but the overall size of the business was so small that this had little effect on overall results. Of the English-speaking destinations chosen by Thai students, Australia was narrowly favoured by the majority of students, closely followed by the UK and USA in joint-second place. These results differ little from last year, when Australia was the top destination and attracted 40 per cent of students, followed by the USA chosen by 21 per cent and the UK chosen by 20 per cent of language travellers. However, the UK and USA have closed the gap somewhat on Australia this year.
Student and course trends
The majority of agency business was taken up with advising students about intensive or academic-focused courses and the serious intentions of Thai students towards their academic goals can be determined by an increase in average length of stay from 15 weeks last year to 17 weeks this year. However, the average percentage of agency clients intending to go on to further studies overseas after their language course decreased slightly this year from 80 per cent to 70 per cent. Instead current and future work reasons received greater emphasis in this survey, highlighting the growing recognition among students of the importance of English language skills for international business.
Agency business
Individual agents differed widely in their business practices with some preferring to specialise on a few schools in one destination and others representing a large number of schools around the world. The number of school partners claimed by agents varied from between five and 300, while the number of countries represented varied from one to eight. On average, agencies had 93 school partners in four countries, although four out of 12 agencies worked with schools from just one country. Fairs and expos were the most successful means of contacting new partner schools this year, accounting for an average of 41 per cent of partnerships, compared with just 15 per cent previously.
Economic outlook
A number of factors caused the Thai economy to slow down during 2005, including a devastating tsunami at the end of 2004, prolonged drought and the return of an avian flu outbreak in poultry.
Private consumption in 2005 increased by 4%, a decrease on the previous year’s growth, mainly due to persistent high oil prices, rising inflation and increasing interest rates, which contributed to more cautious consumer spending.
The economy is expected to increase in 2006 with the main driver of growth predicted to be net exports.
Source: Bank of Thailand
Korean agents named a range of language programmes they work with, including, in Australia: IH Cairns, Cairns; Sydney English Language Centre, Sydney. In Canada: Confederation College, Thunder Bay, ONT; Pacific Gateway International College, Vancouver, BC; Western Town College, Toronto, ONT. In Ireland: American College Dublin; Dublin; Language Centre of Ireland, Dublin. In the Philippines: C21, Manila. In the USA: Concordia College, New York, NY; EF, various; ELS, various; Kaplan, Los Angeles, CA; Lakeland College, Mattoon, IL; Rennert Bilingual, New York, NY; Saginaw Valley State University, MI; Thornton Donovan School, New York, NY; University of California Consortium, CA; University of Findlay, Findlay, OH. In the UK: Anglo-Continental School of English, Bournemouth; Bell, various; British Study Centres, various; Henley College, Coventry; St Giles, Brighton; Sussex Downs College, Lewes. Worldwide: Embassy CES; Eurocentres; Geos.
Thank you to the following agencies for taking part in our survey: CampusOK, Doori Institute, iAE Edu Net Eduhouse, KAMC, Language Bank, Overseas Education and Culture Centre of Korea, Paran Uhak Agency, People Loving Education, Top Educational Counselling House, Uhak.com, UhakFocus.
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Contact any advertiser in the this issue now
The following language schools, associations and accommodation providers advertised in the latest edition of Language Travel Magazine. If you would like more information on any of these advertisers, tick the relevant boxes, fill out your details and send.
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