What do you get when you combine search data from millions of users on GoAbroad with real-life insight from dozens of international educators, youth travel organizations, and meaningful travelers themselves?
Read our official report on travel programs abroad for 2019!
A giant, kick-butt report on the state of travel for 2019, that’s what. We've pooled resources and insights to bring you the most comprehensive overview of travel programs abroad for the coming year.
Get informed and get moving—we’re proud to share the Meaningful Travel Forecast (MTF) for 2019!
The MTF Executive Summary
What's New in International Education & Programs Abroad This Year?
Reports indicate that the travel economy is recovering significantly from the 2008 downturn, with more and more individuals having extra funds to spend on travel. In fact, the US had the highest number of Thanksgiving travelers since 2007 in 2018. Travel's back, baby—and the educational travel field is more ready than ever to help young people have meaningful experiences abroad. The cost to fly is decreasing for long-haul flights and thanks to organizations like the Fund for Education Abroad, travel scholarship giveaways are at an all time high. This means travel is more accessible to a wider variety of people (a trend we hope never goes away!). New resources like Black & Abroad and The First Generation Student's Guide to Study Abroad continue to advocate for more diversity amongst travel program participants.
Programming-wise, things are hot! The uptick of interest in gap years is giving way to "micro gap years"—shorter-term placements abroad that focus on professional skill development. GoAbroad's Founder Troy Peden shares: "More countries are sending cultural travelers—that is, countries are at a place where students travel for non-economic benefits. For example, Japanese students studying music in Italy or Koreans volunteering in Ghana or Kenya." Online English teaching is exploding in 2019, with more and more TEFL organizations offering new certifications specifically for this job set-up. We foresee online classes for other languages, like Spanish or French, to grow massively as more travelers clue-in to the benefits of these digital educational arrangements.
Additional research on sustainable voluntourism models and inclusive community building is getting published, and we're crossing our fingers that Sasha Obama will follow in Malia's footsteps and take a gap year later in 2019!
Where is the Most Popular Place for Meaningful Travel in 2019?
Here are the #1 travel destinations for programs abroad in 2019
Step aside Spain (our top-destination for 2018). There’s a new cat in town—and he brought his surfboard. Pack your thongs and your appetite for vegemite, our community of meaningful travelers and international educators predict Australia to be the top-dog in travel in this new year! Across the board, Australia appeared on eight out of 10 of the possible top travel destination lists.
- Australia is ranked #1 for adventure travel in 2019. [Read the full report]
- Want to work abroad down unda? 4/10 meaningful travelers agree. [Read the full report]
- If you’re looking to get your masters degree in Australia, you’re not alone. It ranks #10. [Read the full report]
- Take a ‘gap yah’ down under—it’s the most loved place for gappers in the world. [Read the full report]
- Australia is in the middle of the high school abroad pack, clocking in at #5. [Read the full report]
- It is the #4 destination amongst meaningful travelers for internships abroad. [Read the full report]
- Australia ranks #2 for places to volunteer abroad, just behind popular Peru. [Read the full report]
- Australia is also the second most popular study abroad destination in 2019. [Read the full report]
Notably, Australia did not rank in the top 10 destinations worldwide for only language schools, teaching abroad, and TEFL courses.
Other popular destinations for meaningful travelers in 2019—regardless of directory—include China, Spain, and Japan, each populating seven of our 10 possible experiences abroad in 2019. England, France, and Italy tie as popular destinations for six out of 10 meaningful travel experiences. Thailand is highlighted on 50% of our best destinations lists, and South Africa, South Korea, New Zealand, and Germany bring up the rear to round out the 12 best places—across the board—for meaningful travel in 2019.
2019 travel vs. 2018 travel
Changes in Trending Destinations Between 2018-2019
We have a few newcomers to the top 10 destinations for meaningful travel: New Zealand, Thailand, and South Africa. It’s great to see more diverse destinations inching their way into the hearts of ambitious, intrepid travelers! New Zealand is an all-star destination for volunteering, taking a gap year, working abroad, and studying abroad, whereas it’s hard to find a better destination with more meaningful volunteer work than Thailand or South Africa. These destinations also double as great places to launch your teach abroad career through a TEFL course.
Who’s missing? As we altered the search methodology for collecting data, it is no surprise that US-based experiences are no longer on our list of best destinations for meaningful travel.
Why the two extra? That’s what happens when you’ve got a four-way tie! Four destinations filled positions 9 and 10 on the list, changing our final count from 10 destinations to 12.
What do Meaningful Travelers Like to Do in These Popular Countries?
Here are the experiences travelers pursue in popular countries
Travelers visiting Australia partake in a variety of activities: adventure travel, degree programs, high school and gap year opportunities, internships, jobs, study abroad, and volunteering. Australia appeals to the widest variety of meaningful travelers, making it the #1 most preferred destination in 2019.
Volunteers are making their way to Japan, South Africa, Thailand, and Australia in droves this year, whereas you can find the most English teachers abroad in destinations like Thailand, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and China. We'd love to see some Latin American destinations on the list for 2020!
Each of these destinations have well-established infrastructure to host young travelers, including a wide-variety of exceptional experiences and types of programs to fulfill their needs. Generally speaking, the countries comprising our top 10 list of meaningful travel destinations in 2019 are predominantly popular amongst users searching for international internships, study abroad programs, gap year opportunities, teaching jobs abroad, and high school travel programs.
What are Travelers' Regional Destination Preferences?
Europe holds steady as the most desirable region for meaningful travel in 2019
Meaningful travelers have been longtime fans of the European continent, and that’s not looking to change in 2019. More than one-third of travelers prefer Europe to other destinations, though powerhouse Asia isn't too far behind—it’s a desirable location for 32% of GoAbroad users in 2019. The Americas and Oceania catch the eye around 15% of meaningful travelers, and we hope to see Africa (5%) grow in appeal in 2019.
Seriously—Africa’s the coolest!
What is the #1 Searched Destination per Travel Experience?
Here's the "must-do" experience in each destination according to meaningful travelers in 2019
It is worth noting that even though Australia had the most appearances on our top 10 travel destinations lists, it didn't clock in as the most preferred destination for all types of travel.
Spain is the #1 destination for international internships AND as a teaching abroad destination. Most of our community are searching for masters degrees in Germany (same as 2018), and believe Thailand to be a top destination to seek TEFL courses in 2019. Adventure travelers and gap year participants are heading to Australia before anywhere else, and volunteer programs in Peru attract more than the llama-loving types. Users searching for international jobs, whether English teaching positions or otherwise, have their eyes on South Korea. England is the most popular destination amongst teen student travelers, whereas college-aged study abroad students are heading EAST—far east—to Japan.
Read More of the MTF
Each of these links will lead you to the collection of destinations that are most attractive to meaningful travelers for a particular type of travel.
Best Destinations—COUNTRIES
- The World's Most Adventurous Places to Visit in 2019 (AT)
- The World's Best Countries to Earn Your Masters Abroad in 2019 (DA)
- The World's Best Countries for Study Abroad in High School in 2019 (HS)
- The World’s Best Places to Intern in 2019 (IA)
- The World's Best Places to Work Abroad in 2019 (JA)
- The World's Best Places to Study Abroad in 2019 (SA)
- The 10 Best Places to Teach English Abroad in 2019 (TA)
- The World's Best Places for TEFL Certification in 2019 (TEFL)
- The World's Best Places to Volunteer Abroad in 2019 (VA)
Best Destinations—CITIES
- The Best College Cities in the World (DA)
- The Best Expat Cities (JA)
- The Best Cities for Summer Internships Abroad (IA)
- The Best Cities for Study Abroad (SA)
Best Project-Type, Focus, Cause
- The Best Languages to Learn Abroad (LS)
- The Best Subjects for International Degrees (DA)
- The Best Types of Expat Jobs (JA)
- The Best Study Abroad Opportunities for High Schoolers (HS)
- The Best Gap Year Opportunities for High School Graduates (GY)
- The Best Types of Teaching Jobs Abroad (TA)
- The Best Types of TEFL Courses (TEFL)
- The Best Types of Volunteer Projects Abroad (VA)
- The Best Majors for Study Abroad (SA)
- The Best Fields for International Internships (IA)
Best Programs
- The Best Study Abroad Programs for High School Students (HS)
- The Best International Internships (IA)
- The Best Jobs Abroad (JA)
- The Best Language Schools in the World (LS)
- The Best Study Abroad Programs (SA)
- The Best Teach English Abroad Programs (TA)
- The Best Online TEFL Courses (TEFL)
- The Best Volunteer Abroad Programs (VA)
- The Best Gap Year Programs (GY)
Background on GoAbroad’s Official Meaningful Travel Report for 2019
The Goal
- Analyze GoAbroad user behavior to predict travel preferences in 2019 based on preferred destinations by activity (i.e. best destinations for study abroad) as well as preferred program-focus (i.e. best types of volunteer projects abroad). Survey international educators and incorporate feedback from industry professionals to further assert predictions.
- Present community findings comprehensively, highlighting our statistical findings and community insights to give a snapshot of the most up-to-date meaningful travel landscape.
- Create something cool.
Get to know our typical community member
Our Demographics
We have over a million unique visitors every month; more than three-quarters are 18-34 years old and 60% identify as women. Our next most popular age-range is the 45+ crowd (hence our new resources for traveling in your golden years!) followed closely by Generation X'ers (11% of our traffic is from 35-44 year olds).
Approximately 90% of our traffic is from English speakers, with the majority of our users come from the United States. We also have established traffic bases from Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
What else does our community do *besides* travel and make the world a more connected place? They usually have their headphones in tow because they love listening to music. Media and photography catch their attention, but they also love to shop, stay fit, and keep their lifestyles "green." And, of course, they love... food! (It's one of our favorite reasons to travel!).
The Website
GoAbroad has been helping travelers find programs abroad since 1997. The GoAbroad website is broken into 11 separate types of meaningful travel, known as “directories:"
- Adventure Travel (AT), Degree Abroad (DA), Gap Year (GY)
- High School Abroad (HS), Intern Abroad (IA), Jobs Abroad (JA),
- Language Schools (LS), Study Abroad (SA), Teach Abroad (TA), TEFL Certification Courses (TEFL), Volunteer Abroad (VA)
There is an individual destination report for each of our 10 directories, with some directories yielding additional reports (broken down by project-focus, program-type, or city-destination). You can find links to each directory’s individual reports further down this summary.
How We Define “Meaningful Travel?"
We define meaningful travel as more than romping around from place to place with no real intentions (or reflection on the impact your presence has in a foreign community). There are a lot of tenets that define meaningful travel, but the most crucial include:
- Have goals and intentions
- Strive for reciprocity and mutual benefit
- Reflect
- See every travel experience as an opportunity to learn
- Be humble
We find organized travel programs are exceptional at fostering the environment necessary for this type of inner-work and self-reflection. Capitalizing on an experience can be easier to do with the right combination of guidance and independence.
The Report Methodology
Using Google Analytics, we segmented our 2018 US-based traffic by directory. From there, we analyzed the top trafficked pages to first identify the 10 most visited pages for countries, projects, or cities in that specific directory. We collated this data, cross-referenced with existing industry reports (such as the Open Doors Data for 2019), and set it aside.
Next, we sent surveys to international education professionals to get their feedback on the state of meaningful travel in their relevant-wheel houses. After collecting this extensive research, we compared industry-findings with our search-trends and existing data, pulling out the most logical experiences and destinations.
We also threw a couple of wild cards in there (these are predictions, right?!). Who knows—Maybe Minsk IS the next big thing in working abroad!
Read more about methodology in full here.
How the Meaningful Travel Forecast Differs from The GoAbroad Top Travel Destinations Report for 2018
We created our first-ever Top Travel Destinations Report for 2018 to capture trending travel destinations for the previous year. The MTF report differs significantly in three ways.
- It is not focused on traffic data and user behavior alone, but incorporates extensive feedback from industry professionals, as well as intensive research on the current state of international education around the globe.
- We no longer use ALL of our search traffic to make predictions, instead focusing only on community members that are US-based.
- Instead of only delivering ideas and predictions based on country and region locations, the MTF also caters to community members interested in particular cities, types of experiences, project-focus, AND country-destination.
Please Share This Report
Thanks for your interest in sharing our findings with your networks, communities, and fellow travel-lovers!
Report Mentions
Please link directly to this page: https://www.goabroad.com/articles/goabroad-meaningful-travel-forecast-2019
We’ve put together these free promotional materials for GoAbroad’s Official Meaningful Travel Forecast as well, including suggested social media posts and an email template to wow your networks.
Inclusion Requests
Want to be featured in one of the 25 articles comprising the 2019 Meaningful Travel Forecast? Reach out to Megan Lee (contact details below) to discuss opportunities.
Press Inquiries
This report was prepared by the GoAbroad Editorial Team. You can email them at [email protected] with any questions, comments, concerns, ideas, queries, complements, conundrums, et al.
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