It’s no secret that planning educational travel, like a student performance tour, is complex. Without the right support, it can be stressful. Each student trip requires working with multiple vendors, such as:
- Airlines
- Motorcoach companies
- Attractions
- Accommodations
- Restaurants
From planning itineraries to booking vendors, student travel is not an endeavor you want to make on your own. That’s why it’s vital for educators and administrators like you to partner with a tour partner with experience, connections, and expertise. Peak Performance Tours ticks all of these boxes and more.
While Peak Performance Tours is already the premier provider of dance travel tours, band trips, and choir tours, they are excited to announce that they’ve recently acquired American Music Abroad. This allows Peak Performance Tours to leverage American Music Abroad’s 44 years of experience to:
- Provide exceptional service in Europe with multilingual guides
- Access instruments in-country that would cost a fortune to ship
- Book performance locations that guarantee audience attendance
- Utilize extensive knowledge of Central Europe
If you are thinking of planning a class trip or performing arts student tour, request more information now.
If you are not quite sure whether a domestic or international tour experience is right for your students, let’s take a look at why you should build performance travel into your music education (and arts education in general) curriculum.
Why Are Music Student Performance Tours Important?
Performance tours for students are a vital part of the education process for music students. The exposure and performance opportunities offer invaluable experiences and potential for personal and professional growth among young musicians. Here are some key reasons why these tours are significant:
1. Performance experience
Music tours provide students with the opportunity to perform in various venues and settings, allowing them to gain experience and confidence in their abilities. This exposure helps them hone their performance skills and adapt to different acoustics, audiences, and environments. From parades in Washington DC to Carnegie Hall in New York City, and from grand halls in London to small churches in Prague, each performance opportunity is unique.
2. Cultural exchange
Traveling to different locations exposes students to diverse cultures, customs, and musical traditions. A band, dance, or choir field trip can provide opportunities for ensemble members to learn about the local culture through visits to museums, historical sites, and cultural events. This can help them gain a deeper understanding of the history and traditions of the people in the area.
This cultural exchange fosters a broader understanding of the world and an appreciation for different art forms, fostering a broadened sense of cultural awareness alongside personal development.
3. Collaboration and teamwork
Performance tours often involve collaboration with other schools, ensembles, or local musicians, requiring students to work together and adapt to new musical situations. This experience enhances their teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills, which are essential for professional success.
4. Building a musical network
Music tours create opportunities for students to connect with fellow musicians, educators, and industry professionals. These connections can lead to future collaborations, mentorships, or professional opportunities, helping students advance their musical careers. Networking opportunities often play a key part in orchestra, band, and choir field trip ideas and opportunities.
5. Education and personal growth
Performance tours often include workshops, masterclasses, and sightseeing activities, offering students a chance to learn about music history, theory, and technique from various perspectives. Additionally, the experiences of traveling and performing together can foster strong friendships and personal growth, as students learn to navigate new situations, face challenges, and become more independent.
6. Motivation and inspiration
Performing on tour can inspire students to strive for excellence and continue their musical pursuits. The positive feedback and recognition they receive can reinforce their passion for music and motivate them to further develop their skills and talents. There is nothing as inspiring as international recognition for student musical performances.
Student performance tours offer young musicians a unique opportunity to gain practical experience, broaden their horizons, and develop important life skills, all while pursuing their passion for music.
Why You Should Partner with Peak Performance Tours
Peak Performance Tours specializes in customized student performance tour packages designed specifically with each unique client and their needs in mind. They have helped send organizations to some of the most iconic performance venues and events on Earth, including:
- The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Ireland (complete with a live broadcast)
- Macy’s Day parade in New York City
- Tournament of Roses Parade in California
At the moment, Peak Performance Tours, along with its new colleagues at American Music Abroad, are in the planning stages for three 3 International tours planned for 2024, including stops in:
- Scotland
- France
- Vienna & Prague
As you will see in this overview video, the Peak Performance Tours process is thorough and personal.
Here are some additional reasons to partner with Peak:
1. Save time and energy
You can focus on parent meetings, lesson plans, and anything else while your tour is being planned for you. With your input, Peak Performance Tours will build a program specifically for your class trip, educational trips, music tours, or any group travel tour based on your budget, group objective, and overall interests.
Priority is placed on scheduling activities that will interest each program participant as well as exceed the level of educational expectations for school group administrations or leisure expectations for senior travel and corporate incentive trips. Transportation, accommodations, restaurant reservations, and entertainment are carefully woven into the schedule to complete the program tour.
2. Resources and buying power
With Peak Performance Tours’ travel industry experience comes relationships that allow for increased bargaining power. Peak operates in bulk, so they have access to rates that individuals and travel agents can’t generally access. And because of their relationships with vendors and their ongoing trade involvement, Peak’s team is set to negotiate the best possible prices for your trip.
3. Insurance
General professional liability insurance is automatically in place covering injury or property damage due to misrepresentation. Peak holds $2 million dollars in Professional/General Liability.
In addition, Peak Performance Tours offers trip cancellation travel insurance to all of our participants. Travel insurance can reimburse the costs of the trip if it is canceled or interrupted due to unforeseen circumstances, such as illness.
4. Safety due diligence:
When you travel with Peak Performance Tours, safety is job one. Peak will provide dedicated hotel security for overnight stays.
Private security will be hired to watch over your student’s rooms nightly from 11 pm to 5 am. Depending on the size of the group, one or two guards may be hired, one for girls and one for boys. Their responsibility is two-fold. They will make sure that hotel guests outside of the group do not disturb your students, and they will make sure the students stay in their room once you set a curfew, so that your chaperones can have a nice restful sleep.
Additionally, every student that travels on an overnight trip with Peak Performance Tours receives an ID Card for emergency purposes. These cards contain the name of the school, the Director’s name and cell phone number, the hotel name and phone number, and the tour escort’s name and cell phone number. A cell phone is provided by Peak for the Director so no charges are incurred on their personal cell phone.
Finally, all tour operators ensure that suppliers are in compliance with federal and international safety standards and better business practices appropriate to the age of the group.
5. Specialized destination knowledge
Onsite travel experience that can insure value-added trip design and packaging. Area knowledge is vital for international student performance tours because it helps students understand the cultural, social, and economic characteristics of the places they are visiting. By developing a deeper understanding of the local area, students can better appreciate and respect the local customs, traditions, and way of life.
Having area knowledge can enhance the learning experience of students by providing context to their academic studies. For example, if a group of international students is studying history, visiting historical landmarks in the area can help them better understand the context and significance of the events they are learning about.
6. Financial ease and cost efficiency
Peak Performance Tours understands the challenges for students in raising money to go on a trip. They work with clients to establish payment schedules that are realistic in timing for both the students and their vendors/suppliers. When you choose Peak, your tour coordinator will monitor the payment schedule and will work with you to ensure the necessary payments are in place to confirm itinerary bookings.
Peak Performance also builds into its pricing a 10% reduction factor. Therefore, you have up to 10% of the total number of cancellations without the per-person pricing changing. Your tour coordinator will help you with any pricing adjustments that may be needed.
Peak offers online Registration options with charge card payments available so you no longer need to collect the money yourself as was common with music field trips and dance tours in years past.
7. Experienced staff
Your Peak Performance Tours trip is planned by reputable travel professionals who understand the flow of your itinerary to ensure efficiency in travel time at any given destination.
Their full-time tour managers accompany you throughout your stay 24/7, staying on property with you. They assist with hotel check-in, security, and transportation upon arrival.
If these plans are applicable to your group, Peak’s managers:
- Finalize all transportation logistics
- Confirm all restaurant reservations
- Obtain theater and/or activity-related tickets
- Coordinate the site details relating to music performances
The Tour Managers serve as your group’s concierge in dealing with any questions or unexpected itinerary changes that occur once the trip has begun and their primary objective is to ensure seamless execution of all the itinerary logistics.
8. Operational structure
Peak’s experience in student performance tours means that they have an existing process in place to handle everything from payment collection to trip information dissemination for teachers, students, and parents.
Peak will provide you with whatever transportation is needed from the moment you leave the school and throughout your trip, whether your travel is by Air, Train, Boat, or Bus, and works tirelessly to vet their providers.
Most of Peak’s trips include first-class accommodations with a full-American breakfast. They are not in partnership with any hotel chain and therefore, choose hotels that are strategically located in support of the itinerary.
9. Special needs management
Be it international or domestic travel, specific traveler needs will be handled flawlessly to ensure maximum enjoyment of the trip. Special needs assistance is vital for student tours because it ensures that all students, regardless of their ability or disability can fully participate and enjoy the tour. Some of the ways that Peak can help travelers with special needs include:
- Accessibility: Students with disabilities may require special accommodations, such as wheelchair ramps, accessible transportation, or sign language interpreters, to fully access and enjoy the tour.
- Safety: Students with special needs may require additional assistance or supervision to ensure their safety and well-being during the tour.
- Inclusion: Providing special needs assistance can help promote a culture of inclusion and respect for diversity among all students, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.
- Learning: Students with special needs may require additional support or accommodations to fully participate and benefit from the educational and cultural experiences offered by the tour.
- Legal requirements: In some countries, there are legal requirements to provide special needs assistance and accommodations for students with disabilities.
Peak Performance Tours is proud to help promote inclusion, accessibility, safety, and learning, and help meet legal requirements.
Start Planning Your Student Performance Tour Today
There is only so much textbooks can do for your students. With Peak Performance Tours, you can take them one step closer to greatness by giving them a unique opportunity to explore and perform around the world. That’s why Peak’s slogan is “You Pick the Date, We’ll make it Great!”
Planning the perfect student performance tour takes time, so if you are thinking of planning a class trip or performing arts student tour, request more information now.
