Affinity Travel Operators

 

Educational institutions have the opportunity to bring an added dimension to group travel through the supplemental content provide by academic expertise. Alumni travel with their school for both the additional information and the social bond of traveling with friends. An institution can also build community by offering specialized trips for purposes such as service, singing, donor cultivation, or cultural appreciation. Yet, most institutions do not have the expertise or resources to plan alumni trips so they turn to operators specializing in affinity travel. Here is some information to help you decide which operators might be most helpful for you.

 

	Academic Arrangements Abroad	AHI Travel	Immersion Journeys LLC	Lindblad Expeditions	MIR Corporation	Criterion Travel, Inc.	Far Horizon Tours Pvt Ltd	Distant Horizons	Royal Adventures	Academic Travel Abroad, Inc.	Via Antiqua Travel GmbH
							Banyan Tours			Academic Travel Abroad	Via Antiqua
Founded	1977	1962	2009	1966	1986	2007	1992	1985	1991	1950	2012
Employees	30	80	5	200	23	18	80	6	4	90	7
URL	http://arrangementsabroad.com	ahitravel.com	www.immersionjourneys.com	www.expeditions.com	www.mircorp.com	www.criteriontravel.com	www.farhorizonindia.com	www.distant-horizons.com	www.royaladventures.com	www.academic-travel.com	www.via-antiqua.com
Departures/year	100 - 500	1000+	100 - 500	500 - 1,000	500 - 1,000	1-100	1-100	100 - 500	100 - 500	100 - 500	1-100
Other trips			FIT	FIT/group	FIT/group		FIT/group	FIT/group			FIT/group
Service travel	Available	Service learning if requested	Component of trips	Foundation	Service learning if requested	Service learning if requested	Available	Service learning if requested	Service learning if requested	Available	Possible
Destinations	United States	Italy	East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda)	Galapagos	Russia	Africa	India - North/South/East/West	Africa (Ethiopia, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia)	Latin America	Europe, U.K., all	Italy
	Cuba	France	Southern Africa (S. Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique)	Antarctica	Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan	Antarctica	Bhutan	America (Cuba, Colombia)	Australia & New Zealand	Europe, France, all	France
	Europe	Ireland	West Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Benin, Togo)	Arctic	Iran	Asia	Nepal	Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Five Stans, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Mustang, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim, Silk Road, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tibet)	Italy	Europe, Italy, all	Germany
	Latin America	Great Britain	South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal)	Alaska	South Caucasus: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan	Australia	Sri Lanka	Europe (Caucasus, Russia, Turkey)	Iceland	Europe, Czech Republic, all	Austria
	Asia	European Waterway River Cruises	South America (Argentina, Peru, Chile, Ecuador)- under www.coddiwomplejourneys.com- a separate brand/ entity	Baja California	Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova	Europe	Bangladesh	Middle East (Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman	Spain	Asia, China, all	Suisse
	Africa	South Africa		Costa Rica/Panama	Baltics: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania	North America	Burma	Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam)		Asia, Japan, all	Greece
	Australia	East Africa		Pacific Northwest	Balkans: Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina	Oceania	Tibet			Asia, India, all	Netherlands
		Southeast Asia		Amazon	China, Mongolia, Tibet, DPRK	South America	Maldives			Africa, Morocco, all	Great Britain
		South America		South Pacific	Central/East Europe: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania					Africa, Jordan, all	Balkans
River cruises	Y	Y	Y	Y	Occasionally	Y	Y		Y	Y
Ocean/sea cruises	Y	Y		Y	Occasionally	Y			Y	Y
Land trips	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Luxury train trips	Y	Y			Y	Y	Y		Y	Y
Single location, immersion trips	Y	Y	Y		Y		Y	Y		Y	Y
Private Jet	Y						Y
Customized departures	Y and Private yachts	Within existing	Y	Minimal	Y	VIPs, donors, trustees, board member trips	Educational trips,Adventure trips and Service learning programs	Y	Y, inc Walking tours and Inca Trail	3-6 week student trips	sailing tours
<5 days	Y		Y	Y			Y	Y		Y	Y
Longest trip	18	28 days	15 days	25 days	75 days	18	48	20	16	17	14
Tell us if S ponsor or O perator manages these areas
Reservations	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O
Collect Depsits	S or O	S or O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O
Welcome letter to trip - We always manage this	S or O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O
Personal Information Form	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	O only	O only	S or O
Reading List	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S only	O only	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O
Invoicing	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	O only	O only	S or O
Payments	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	O only	O only	S or O
Brochure preparation	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O
Lecturer travel plans	S or O	O	O	S or O	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O
Web page content - We always manage this	S or O	O	S	S or O	S or O	S only	S only	S or O	S or O	O only	S or O
Webpage functions	S or O	O	S	S or O	S or O	S only	S only	S or O	S only	S only	S only
Travel insurance	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S or O	S only	S or O	S or O	S or O	S only
	We are a small privately held and financially stable New York Corporation. We are fully insured and staffed by experts both in the office and on tour. We care about the quality of each trip and the care for each traveler.	AHI Travel—Statement of Purpose Travel and discovery go hand-in-hand with learning and scholarship. Our client partners are institutions of learning and culture, of immense worth to society, who believe in the value of smoothly delivered experiential travel in furthering their goals and building engagement among their membership. Our singular mission is to help grow the standing and reputation of our clients, while strengthening the affinity their members feel towards them. We do this by promoting and delivering inspirational cultural and educational travel programs that delight travelers, and connect them to the world, to each other and to their sponsoring organization.	See general company description below: Award-winning Immersion Journeys was built on the foundation that every traveler must EXPERIENCE their destination. We provide highly immersive, authentic experiences in Africa and South Asia which do just that. More than the sites, it’s the experience… At Immersion Journeys the team members are either from one of the host nations we service or have travelled extensively and regularly to the destinations. Our emphasis is to ensure that the experience remains authentic – it should be as close to a coming home for you as it would be for us. We ensure that a personal touch goes into every itinerary by working individually with all of our clients, recognizing that each traveler – individual or group — has a specific agenda. We firmly believe that travel is about more than the sites you see – it’s about the experience. Every travel company strives to offer their best and brightest – at Immersion Journeys we let the client be the judge of our expertise.	Our ships are equipped with tools for exploration—to get you out there for up-close forays, or to let you see deeper into the marine or terrestrial. Our ships are equipped with Zodiacs, kayaks, Paddleboards, hydrophones, Undersea cameras, bow and ship cameras, video microscopes and more!	MIR has been providing meticulous made-to-measure travel experiences at the crossroads of Europe and Asia for over 30 years. Since 1986, MIR has built a reputation as a pioneer in travel to destinations considered obscure, exotic, remote, difficult and even controversial – from Tibet to Tehran and everyplace in between. MIR – from the Russian word meaning both “peace” and “world” – specializes in bringing people together to discover more about the world and, consequently, about themselves.	Criterion Travel is a tour operator specializing in expert-led travel. We work with top U.S. affinity organizations to create and operate customized group itineraries worldwide with a strong educational focus. Our core group of 12 staff have been doing this work together for over 20 years.	Curating experience and ensuring high standards of quality ratings with an overall excellence of 87% and above We are a trip leader driven company and organises regular training to assign the best people for our groups/FITs		Royal Adventures has been in business over 25 years working almost exclusively with alumni associations and museums. We deliver an excellent execution of an educational travel program. We customize and can work closely with the organization and faculty to create a unique experience. We keep long relationships with our clients who can count on us to offer quality, unique and detailed itineraries not easily found with other companies. We have vast experience in the affinity market and in the destinations we offer. We personally scout all destinations and have many personal contacts and connections that we can call upon. Royal Adventures can make any program special which reflects well on our clients. Our tour directors are carefully chosen for a fully integrated experience. Our company also specializes in high donor and art museums trips in addition to alumni programs.	We have a long history and an executive team with great longevity and experience in the field of educational travel. We are experienced risk managers in this volatile world and can always be counted on to do the right thing by our customers. Half the company focuses on international education programs for college students. We live and breathe immersive, educational travel experiences.
	For 40 years our only focus has been on supporting our not for profit clients in developing and operating exceptional programs that enrich participant's lives through educational travel.	Our 55 year history of working with affinity partners to deliver unique experiences that connect travelers to the destination, to each other and to the sponsoring association.	We are very hands-on and specialists in regions that we serve. Most trip programs are custom curated to meet the sponsor requirements and it's a very collaborative effort.	Our fleet of ships, in partnership with National Geographic, brings us to the planet’s most extraordinary places in the company of world-renowned scientists, naturalists, photographers, and researchers to explore stunning natural environments alongside skilled specialists using state-of-the-art exploration tools.	We are uniquely positioned to support any organization interested in planning travel to the corner of the globe we specialize in. No other company offers the combination of 30 years of travel-planning and logistics expertise solely focused on where Europe and Asia come together; an experienced Seattle-based sales/marketing office staffed with individuals with tremendous first-hand field experience and destination knowledge; plus on-site affiliated operational field offices across Russia, Central Asia and Ukraine.	We are willing to adapt as needed to meet the needs of our sponsoring organizations and their travelers.	Given the opportunity to experience the living and Natural history of India and its sub continent through its people, rivers,deserts,mountains,jungles, villages and festivals.		A well executed program and responsiveness.	We are unique in that we bridge two worlds: academia and travel. This results in creative programs that have real educational depth.

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Here is a list of affinity travel operators for reference while we gather more information:

 

Academic Arrangements Abroad	Classic Escapes	Go Ahead	MIR	Thomas P. Gohagan
Academic Travel Abroad	Criterion Travel	GoNext	Odysseys Unlimited	Thomson Adventures
AHI	Discover Europe	Immersion Journeys	Orbridge	via Antiqua
Alaska Wildland Adventures	Distant Horizons	International Seminar Design	Royal Adventures	World Wide Trekking
Black Sheep Adventures	Far Horizons	Lindblad Expeditions	Special Tours	Zegrahm
China Advocates

 

You can learn more about affinity travel at the Educational Travel Consortium website: https://educationaltravel.travel/

 

Inclusion in this list is not an endorsement by Impactrics or anyone connected with Impactrics. It is provided solely for reference.

If  you would like to submit information about a travel operator, complete this survey: Affinity Travel Operator Info. To place an ad on this page or on the website, email info@impactrics.com.