The time leading up to an MBA trip can be eventful. As the travel organizer, you’ve probably got a list of things to do long enough to see you into the next year. Post-trip is no different, with certain tasks needing to be wrapped up before you can get stuck into the next big project.
Aside from the usual confirming accommodation, transport, local tour guides, and then finalizing vendor payments or refunds once you’re back, there are a number of finer details that can add to attendees' overall experience. In this post, we share some general MBA travel organizer tips to help you with the pre and post-tour experience for everyone.
While they’re not crucial to the overall mission, they do help it run smoother and ensure that everyone has an enjoyable and safe time.
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Laying the groundwork for an amazing travel experience is communication. As the organizer, it’s up to you to initiate contact within the group.
In the planning stages, as soon as students start registering for the trip, collect their contact information. If you are using WeTravel to collect payments and manage bookings, you can request these details during the signup process.
Once you have this together, you can set up a WhatsApp or Facebook group, or a group on any of your preferred platforms, just to get the communication going. With everyone connected, you can share travel tips, information, and just generally drum up excitement about the upcoming trip.
Having a group communication channel will be useful while everyone is on tour as well, as there may be times when you aren't all together but need to relay plans.
Keep in mind that, if there is chatter going on in the group platform, important information may slip through the cracks. So, email will still be your best bet for sending out travel documents and liaising about the more formal aspects of the trip. Again, if you’re using WeTravel, you can automate these to go out for you.
Next on the list of MBA travel organizer tips we have to share, is to remember to circulate the itinerary just before you depart. This is one of those key travel documents we were talking about in the point above - it's best sent over email to ensure that the attendees have direct access to their copy.
If you have put together an entire travel dossier, then send this too. However, at a minimum, sharing the itinerary beforehand will help everyone to be better prepared. Knowing what the plan is for each day on the tour means they can prepare and pack accordingly, and arrive ready to tackle whatever is on the agenda.
The itinerary is also going to be a key document for the students while on the trip. Should the group split up to go exploring, they will have the details of where they need to be and when on hand. When you’ve booked transport or are working around deadlines, keeping to a schedule is key.
No one wants to think about an emergency popping up on a trip. However, the reality is that they happen from time to time. What you can do to be better prepared in case anything does go wrong, is to draw up an emergency plan in the days before you go.
By this stage, you will know where your trip accommodation is, and who you will be meeting with on the other side. It's always a good idea to include this sort of information in your emergency plan so that anyone back home or on the tour can contact the hosts should they need to.
You can also include the contact details for a faculty member who's staying behind but will be a point of liaison if it's needed.
Once the information is together, slot this into your dossier and share it with the attendees.
The group will be making amazing memories while they're on tour, and there's likely to be some great evidence captured along the way. A day or two before you go, make sure there's a central point where everyone can share this content. A Facebook group or folder on Google Drive could do the trick.
Encourage everyone to upload the media as they go, or once everyone is back, send a reminder to share with the rest of the group. This way, everyone can reminisce about the trip and time they had together.
The college might also want to use it to showcase the trip, or you as the organizer, to promote the next one you're putting together.
As a final show of your planning skills, you can arrange a post-tour event to bring the group back together in the following weeks. This will reunite everyone and help to cement the bonds formed. You might find that some of the students may be eager to join on the next tour you organize, so this is a way to keep in contact.
Even if you're not going to organize another MBA trip, asking the attendees for feedback post tour can be helpful. The college can pass this onto the person who will be taking the reins from you, and the feedback can help them to shape an equally memorable experience for the next MBA tour group.
If you’re a regular travel organizer, you’ll know that getting feedback is key to highlighting what people love about your tour, and what they think could do with improvement.
As an extension of the trip itself, it’s worth putting some time into creating a great pre and post-tour experience for attendees. While the details aren’t crucial to the tour outcome, they do add positively to the overall experience itself.
If our MBA travel organizer tips have you interested in finding out how WeTravel can help you with group trip planning, watch the short video clip below. Alternatively, get hold of us on live chat for more information.