1. Tell us your story. How did GTS Work & Travel get started?

GTS opened its doors on Feb 20th, 2003 by offering Cultural Exchange Programs for youths. The main long-term goal for GTS is growing the knowledge of cultural exchange programs, open horizons for youth and widen their border of understanding the world. More than this, GTS is proud by long-term team members and partners for youth in terms of tourism services and cultural exchange programs. During the years, GTS extend its business with other services such as US tourist visa, flight tickets, cruises, transportation, events and accommodation services both for youth and corporate clients.

2. What makes GTS Work & Travel different from your competitors?

Romania is a competitive market for customers willing to experience different cultural exchange programs and expand their view about the world and people from other cultures. That’s the reason why we have decided to provide transparency to our customers through our team, who have experienced the services provided by our company and can share the real experience through the eyes of a former customer. In this way, we are offering the trust to our customers when it comes to utilize our services and to trust the quality of the cultural exchange programs we offer. Our team is putting a lot of commitment into what they do and that can be visible from the interaction with the clients and from the feedback we receive when completing the services satisfaction survey. During this period of time, it is important to acknowledge the needs of our customers and meet their expectations and standards, which we are regularly checking and complying to the requirements of the market itself.

3. What is your favourite success story from your organisation?

Our most successful story is without a doubt the chance to materialize the diversity of cultural exchange programs to our customers and provide those the full package of travel experience when participating in the program by putting in place tailor-made itineraries based on their needs.

4. What can we expect to see from GTS Work & Travel in the future?

GTS will continue follow the market trends by adapting to the needs of its customers and working on maintaining a strong customer services and partnerships. As the world is in a continue tech development, we, as a company are always looking for new opportunities which will improve the customer expectations. Planning for the future to invest in e-tech which will improve not only the customer experience but as well the staff members efficiency in day-to-day operational aspects.

5. Which trends do you see in educational and active youth travel?

Nowadays, the concept of educational and youth tourism is translated in offering quality full packages at prices accessible to our customers. Packages, beside tourism should contain educational elements and they should be designed specifically to the age of focus group. Products and services offered should face the powerful competition from Romania.
Among the tourism activities offered to the youth, as previously mentioned, it`s necessary to mention the following educational activities that arises nowadays: workshops and conferences with specific topics, competitions to assess and develop personal and inter-personal skills, and the possibility to understand the lifestyle and the culture to the specific destination the youth are choosing to travel.

6. How do you work to ensure the health and safety of young travellers involved with GTS Work & Travel?

Health and safety of our clients is one of the most important internal procedures of GTS. We have developed during the years an internal customer support service managed by our staff members during their programs. The staff members are available even during the holiday closure through our Emergency Cell Service. Before starting the program, we assure with our partners that the destination of traveling, the employer and the area is properly vetted and respects all the rules and requirements set within the program regulations.

7. What was your motivation to join WYSE Travel Confederation?

Participating at WYSTC is giving you the chance to connect with peers operating within the youth travel industry and establish powerful connections with industry leaders from all around the world. With a wide variety of educational session which provides up-to-date overview of the major characteristics and trend of industry business, WYSTC is a must for anyone looking to build on their business.

8. Have you attended a WYSE Travel Confederation event? (WYSTC, STAY WYSE, WYSE Exchange Australia, WETM-IAC) If so, what was your experience with the event?

Yes, I have attended three times in 2019, 2021 and 2022. WYSTC, because this is the only WYSE Travel Confederation event attended by now was full of great experiences, exchanges of thoughts, sharing of knowledge about global trends, connect with current partners and gain new partnerships.

9. What is an industry challenging your organisation is facing currently?

Taking into consideration the post pandemic period, we noticed an increase in our client’s interest in experiencing other countries from around the globe. More than this, they expand their horizons by looking for experience that will contribute to their professional development, beside the personal one. In the past 2 years, our customers become interested in different multicultural activities and we as a business, turn our attention to cover all the fields that our customers express interest in.