Trading and events

WYSE Travel Confederation creates trading opportunities for buyers and sellers of international youth travel products and services through its promotional opportunities and portfolio of events, which are designed to help the industry grow by facilitating business to businesses introductions, sharing expertise and best practices and providing key industry insights. Our events include face-to-face business meetings, educational sessions from top industry leaders, sponsored networking sessions and much more. You can learn more about these events by visiting our dedicated events page. Depending on your level of WYSE membership, you will be entitled to the following benefits through our promotional opportunities and WYSE events:

Promotional opportunities

• New member article
  Every new member has the opportunity to place an introductory article about their organisation in the News section of our website. This article is also promoted via our weekly newsletter and through our social media channels to provide maximum exposure.
• Member update articles
  Members can provide news articles and press releases about their organisations at any time and we will place these in our news section, while promoting through our weekly newsletter and social media channels.
• Online listing
  Every member will have their organisation listed in the “Find members” section of our website, including a link back to their website.
• Member introductions
  Members can take advantage of member to member introductions that are performed by us to facilitate B2B activity between our members.

World Youth and Student Travel Conference discount

The World Youth and Student Travel Conference is the leading trade event for the global youth, student and educational travel industry with more than 600 delegates attending each year. As a Buyer member, your organisation will be permanently guaranteed one Hosted Buyer registration for WYSTC, meaning that you will be able to register one delegate in the cheapest available Hosted Buyer category every year without having to apply and go through the WYSTC Buyer Programme selection process (note that hosted flights and accommodation are not guaranteed).

Events discounts

As a Buyer member you will be prioritised for hosted buyer spots at our events which are relevant to your business and will be the first to hear about them. You will also receive a member registration discount for our events that do not have a Buyer Programme, such as WETM-IAC.

Buyer members receive discounted non-buyer delegate registrations for all WYSE Travel Confederation events (excluding the World Youth and Student Travel Conference). This benefit is aimed at enabling members to make the most out of the trading opportunities available at WYSE Travel Confederation events.

Subsidiary organisations

If your organisation has one or more subsidiary youth and student travel organisations under the same ownership, then you can save money by adding them to your membership for only € 200 per brand. Both the principal membership organisation and subsidiary organisation will benefit independently from the full range of member benefits.

World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) booth discount

As a Buyer member this benefit does not apply to your organisation.

Access to ITB Berlin Booth

Your organisation has the opportunity to co-exhibit at the WYSE Travel Confederation booth at ITB Berlin. Our members can utilise this opportunity to gain more visibility, increase the number of stand visitors and boost brand awareness at one of the world’s largest travel conferences.

Logo

You will be able to use the WYSE Travel Confederation logo in your print and online marketing collateral, as well as use it on your website. This will show that your organisation is a trusted member of the youth travel industry community. The WYSE Travel Confederation logo is recognisable industry-wide and will show your involvement in and commitment to the youth, student and educational travel industry.

Letter of Support

Your organisation will receive a letter of support from WYSE Travel Confederation verifying your participation in the youth, student and educational travel industry’s most powerful industry body. This letter can be used in situations where your organisation needs industry support in promoting or developing important youth travel initiatives.

Research and Education

Research

The WYSE research programme aims to provide the youth travel community with the data and market intelligence it needs to develop the policies, services, and products that make international travel and educational experiences exciting, safe, accessible, and affordable for young people. As a Buyer member your organisation will benefit by having full access to WYSE Travel Confederation research publications, including industry-wide and sector specific data.

Education

In conjunction with our research programme, WYSE Travel Confederation has many resources to further educate players in the youth travel industry. These include seminars, webinars and workshops delivered over the course of a year by more than 120 informed industry experts. As a Buyer member you will:

• • Have full access to all our educational material
  • Have opportunities to share your expertise and experience as a speaker in our educational programme (webinars, seminars and workshops).
  • Be able to shape our industry research and education work by sharing your ideas and business needs
  • Receive our members-only newsletters, which highlight the latest industry updates

Sponsorship

Sponsoring WYSE Travel Confederation research and education material is only available to Elite members

Advocacy

WYSE Travel Confederation contributes to the youth and student travel industry by:

• Raising awareness of the importance of the youth and student travel industry that, as one of the fastest growing sectors within travel and tourism, now supports 67 million jobs and generates 2.4% of global GDP;
• Calling on tourism authorities to take youth travel into account when developing tourism strategies. This ensures that related destinations benefit from the positive impacts youth travel can bring;
• Championing policies that are inclusive, pro-growth and based on solid research;
• And, enabling major industry players to speak as one voice when dealing with governments and international bodies.

As a Buyer member you will have opportunities to proactively address issues that affect your business, sector, or the industry as a whole, and receive the benefits of our work directly.

Voting rights and Management board

Certain levels of WYSE membership include the opportunity to have voting rights as well as to become members of the Management Board and Sector Panels.

• • Full, Elite, Buyer and Service Provider Members are member types that have voting rights (unless your organization has historic voting rights – if not sure, please check with the WYSE membership team). Having voting rights allows you to directly affect the way WYSE Travel Confederation is governed and managed. For example, members are asked to vote for their representatives on the Sector Panels and Management Board. Voting rights also allow members to put forward their suggestions on changing ways of governance.
  • Full, Elite, Buyer and Service Provider Members are member types eligible to be elected to the Management Board and Sector Panels. Elections to these positions take place annually. Candidates for these vacancies are selected in advance by Nomination Committees. Our Management Board oversees the implementation of decisions made by our members at our Annual General Meeting (AGM), which takes place at the World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) each year.

Additional conditions

Buyer membership with WYSE Travel Confederation is an automatically renewing membership. If a member does not wish for their membership to be renewed automatically, they must give due notice outlined in Article 7.3 in the Articles of Association.

Other membership types
For an overview on what’s included in the different Membership types click here.