LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--StudentUniverse, a leading resource for student travel discounts, today announced that it has completed a merger with Journeys are Made @ GapYear.com, a social network and the largest travel advice website powering Gap Year experiences. As a result of the merger, the GapYear.com website and its employees will merge with StudentUniverse UK. GapYear.com will still operate as an independent website.
By merging the two businesses, there will be a truly unique offering for the student travel market in the UK; a best-in-class eCommerce engine allowing students to book travel online, with access to skilled agents to complete complex itineraries and custom-designed Gap Year experiences, as well as Round the World flights.
“230,000 young travellers in the UK take a Gap Year each year and we have seen interest and enrollment in Gap Year programs growing substantially. This is a critical piece of the UK student travel market,” said Dan Baker, Head of Marketing, StudentUniverse. “Teamed up with the website GapYear.com, we are leveraging each brand’s individual strengths to help grow our combined footprint and expand our product offering in the UK market as one selling brand. Carving out this offering for Gap Year travellers positions StudentUniverse for future growth in an ever-expanding sector.”
Prior to the merger, Journeys are Made @ GapYear.com and StudentUniverse were both separate student travel entities operating as part of the Flight Centre Travel Group. StudentUniverse’s customer base are largely single travellers booking individual, international point-to-point flights online, while Journeys are Made @ GapYear.com’s travellers booking long, complex, multi-stop trips over the phone with skilled agents specialising in Gap Year trips.
“Working together, StudentUniverse will help the GapYear.com website to improve its digital presence and sales processes, while the people behind the GapYear.com website will provide local experts able to inform travellers and book the Round the World flights and complex, multi-stop itineraries that travellers across Europe expect,” said Chris Galanty, Managing Director UK and South Africa, Flight Centre. “We are excited about leveraging synergies between our brands where they exist and we provide an unwavering commitment to helping better position StudentUniverse to lead the student travel market in the UK.”
This merger comes on the heels of rapid growth for StudentUniverse in the UK, which has seen more than 200% year-over-year growth in departures as a result of new partnerships and expanded air product that have been made available on studentuniverse.co.uk over the course of the last six months since StudentUniverse joined the Flight Centre Travel Group.
StudentUniverse and the team from the GapYear.com website will operate out of Flight Centre Travel Group’s offices in Intel House, Southwark Bridge Road, London.
About StudentUniverse
StudentUniverse is the world’s leading
travel booking site for students and youth. Through negotiations with a
network of global partners, StudentUniverse offers discounted pricing
and terms on flights, hotels and tours. Its Travel Services division
handles client requests for groups and custom itineraries.
StudentUniverse launched in the UK in 2013 and was acquired by Flight Centre Travel Group in 2015. StudentUniverse is headquartered in Boston with offices in London, Toronto, New York and the Philippines. StudentUniverse believes that travel is essential to a modern education. Millions of students use the service every year. For more information, please visit www.studentuniverse.co.uk or follow @StudentU_UK on Twitter.
