Overpriced excursions: Agencies are “blamed” by the schools, and the regulations are by the schools
The season of school excursions has started a debate about their prices, and while tourist agencies claim that they are expensive due to the demands of schools, schools say that they respect the rulebook that regulates this form of educational work.
The president of the National Association of Tourism Agencies of Serbia (NATAS), Dragan Subotić, said that schools have special requirements that increase the price of excursions, not the agency’s margin, which “absolutely” does not exceed ten percent.
He told Beta that travel agencies, on social networks and in the media, present themselves as “uncaring”, that is, as someone who “grabs huge money” at the expense of children and parents.
Parents are looking for “fancy” places
“It is true that the demands of schools on destinations and quality level go beyond common sense. Often, parents have a ‘want’ for their child to go somewhere, because it is ‘so fancy,'” said Subotić.
In the public procurement of schools for the excursion program, requests appear, as he said, for student accommodation to be in three- and four-star hotels in the center of a city.
“For their visit to Rome, they want the hotel to be in the Termini area, which is absolutely unsafe for students,” said Subotic.
Among the school’s demands, he said, are that the students be accommodated in double and triple rooms, that the tourist agency provide two free trips for 40 students, meals on a half-board basis, transportation by buses of high tourist class, up to five years of age.
According to Subotic, the schools are asking for free travel for the teaching staff, road leader, doctor, tourist guide and two drivers, as well as per diems for them, which are taxed in Serbia at 57 percent.
“Flat-rate” claims
He also asks, as he said, to visit many sights, which implies the purchase of “huge” tickets, including those related to night entertainment (discos).
According to Subotić, some of the requirements are in accordance with the Rulebook of the Ministry of Education, and some are completely “flat-rate”, because the Rulebook does not specify in more detail, so schools are guided by “recommendations”.
Subotić stated that for a group of 40 to 45 students who pay for the excursion, a request for a minimum of seven free trips should be charged, so it should not be surprising that a seven-day excursion in Italy with a tour of Florence, Rome and Venice costs a little more than 600 euros. .
“On this issue, our association contacted the European Tourist Association ETOA, of which we are a member, and we received a number of examples of how excursions are organized in Western European countries. “We all know that those countries have a high standard of living, but in them students are transported on excursions by train, and accommodation is in boarding houses or more modest hotels in multi-bed rooms and even in hostels,” said Subotić.
He added that due to the high requirements, many agencies are not interested in organizing excursions: out of about 1,200 agencies, only about thirty deal with it.
The director of the school for canceling excursions
The director of the Twelfth High School in Belgrade, Svetlana Miljenović, told Beta that the commission, which includes a representative of parents, is drawing up a public procurement program for school excursions.
“For the safety of the students, the rules recommend the age of the vehicle and meals on a half-board basis,” Miljenović said.
She pointed out that it is true that schools follow the recommendations when the public procurement program for the trip is drawn up, but that “they come from several instances and are respected for the safety of the children”.
She added that she is advocating that, due to the many problems that schools have in the organization, field trips should be canceled because they are not a mandatory part of classes.
“Our school canceled field trips for the first and second grade of high school, we organize only for the third grade who can travel around Serbia and the fourth who can go abroad,” the high school director pointed out.
Source: Beta
Photo: Pixabay, Unsplash, Beta
Source: bizlife.rs
