Unleashed Travel, Australia’s leading provider of overseas school-leaver travel packages, has released its 2013 packages to Fiji, Bali, Vanuatu and Thailand. If its sales earlier in the year (1300 sold in only 12 minutes) and findings from its recent survey are anything to go by, Unleashed expects most packages will be sold by December.

Jot Lynas, co-founder and Director of Unleashed Travel, says: “We have just conducted a survey which found that 52% of our student customers book their Schoolies trips within two weeks of hearing about our trips, and 80% book within a month. All the kids know that Schoolies sells out quickly – they like to book early to then concentrate on school while also paying off their trip.”

The survey results just released by Unleashed Travel also highlight reasons for the popularity of overseas Schoolies trips among Australian teenagers. Unleashed surveyed 372 young adults who will complete their HSC in 2012 and 2013 (23%), or completed it 2011 or prior (77%). It looked for their motivators around various Schoolies options, and attitudes and behaviours around overseas trips compared with local destinations. 

Respondents’ biggest reasons for choosing an overseas trip were the appeal of a remote overseas location (48%) and having every aspect of the trip organised for them (53%). Most (58%) admitted Schoolies was their first trip without their parents; 60% needed their parents’ approval before booking their trip; and for 43%, their parents paid for the trip in part or full.

The survey also compared students’ and parents’ concerns: it found that respondents’ main concerns on their trip were theft (30%) and the cost of the holiday (23%). In contrast, the respondents listed their parents’ main concern being safety (67%), getting ill or hurt (40%) and drink spiking (39%).

Jot says, “School leavers travelling with us know that the Unleashed crew is there to look after them. In my opinion, most of them act very responsibly, taking care of themselves and looking after their friends. While our survey found that partying is still high on the list for 77%, students are increasingly choosing island holidays because they want to experience a different culture [24.5%], great beaches [29%], more activities [14.5%] and more of a social atmosphere [45%]. Some [13%] also feel there is a lack of good options in Australia.”

The survey showed that 62% of respondents were most looking forward to relaxing by the beach/pool, 45% meeting new friends, 43.5% experiencing a new location, and 41% sought outdoor activities; with just 5.4% looking to hook up. More than 44% said they book where their friends are going.