The World Youth and Student Travel Conference celebrated its 30th anniversary this year in Lisbon, Portugal. Some may ask how the number one travel trade conference for the youth and student sector first came about. As a core founder and driving force for its creation, I will tell you.
The Birth of the International Student Travel Conference
The International Student Travel Conference (ISTC) was created after World War 2 as students traveled further afield. Student Unions in universities in Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia created travel companies to help their fellow students travel beyond the borders of their home countries. For example, the hippie trail in the early 1970s meant you could get on a bus in Trafalgar Square in central London and seven weeks later disembark in Kathmandu, Nepal, after travelling overland through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. It was a very popular route.
Around this time, a man named Zvi Ravon developed the concept of the Brown Airline Ticket. For the student travel agencies, this meant they did not have to pay the airline until the coupon was lifted instead of the normal airline ticket, which required agencies to pay the airlines within two weeks. This technical development greatly improved the student travel agency’s cash flow.
The student travel companies would gather annually to trade and discuss the future. The ISTC was born from these movements. By 1991, the ISTC had grown to cover most of the world, and the largest student travel companies were generating $500 million and more per year in revenue. ISTC ran a Clearing House, produced airline tickets and student cards, and coordinated student exchanges and insurance. These generated sufficient funds to cover the annual conference costs.
Federation of International Youth Travel Operators (FIYTO)
The Federation of International Youth Travel Operators represented those organizations that were not student travel agencies and their affiliates. Many of the FIYTO members were language schools and much smaller operators than the student travel agencies. However, many of the ISTC members were also members of FIYTO. FIYTO’s primary revenue source was the annual trade show, membership fees, and a youth card. The annual conference was critical to its financial well-being.
The merger of student and youth travel conferences
Both organizations were based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and were no more than 10km apart. In 1991, when I arrived as the Director-General, the organizations did not speak to each other and were seen as rivals. My counterpart at FIYTO, Peter de Jong, had also arrived in the same year. Neither of us had a history with these organizations.
I took it upon myself to meet with Peter, and it became clear to both of us that running two conferences at different times did not make a huge amount of good sense. Since FIYTO was primarily a conference manager and had a larger number of participants, it made sense they would do most of the coordination of the event. We decided to call it the World Youth and Student Travel Conference, and the first one took place in September 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. More than 600 delegates showed up for the first WYSTC conference.
The merger of the two organizations
Neither organization was initially keen on a more fully integrated merger, although general discussions ran on for many years. It was not until the WYSTC conference in Toronto in 2004 that a formal merger of the two organizations took place. Financial pressures on both organizations drove this, but particularly FIYTO at the time. While FIYTO struggled with some bad investments, the ISTC members were under growing pressure from the airlines and the internet, making the original brown ticket redundant.
World Youth and Student Travel Conference 2021
Challenged by Covid-19, WYSTC 2021 was a hybrid of on-site and virtual trading. The idea of virtual trading did not and could not have existed 30 years ago. The fact that it was a success, and the focus of trading is now international student exchanges rather than airline packages, shows how much has changed in 30 years. At the same time, the need for businesses with common interests and requirements to trade amongst themselves has not changed and is unlikely to change much into the future.
