The ACIS Difference: Quality of Care in Educational Travel

The support and care that sits behind every single group on an ACIS educational travel tour, is the part that truly distinguishes us from the other guys.  We know this has been a long recruitment process – a lot of meetings with parents and students and a lot of preparation by the teacher to make the trip a magical experience.  Our job is to deliver the magic and ensure that any bumps in the road are dealt with right away.  For 40 years, ACIS has been delivering programs all over the world.  Yes, the world has changed a little – some things have gotten better and some things have sadly gotten worse – but the level of client support, the level of care, and the quality of the program has never been better.  That is what you get when you travel with ACIS; the people, the team, the support, and ultimately, a trip beyond your expectations.

We have a mantra here at ACIS: Quality Wrapped in Care and a People Partnership from start to end.  That is our winning formula.  Case in point, over the last couple of days, it has gotten very busy over here.  A mechanical issue was called in causing a group to misconnect; potentially losing valuable hours on an itinerary that a teacher and an ACIS Program Consultant had been working on over a year.  This is the real story of what happens behind the scenes:

A phone call comes in from a Group Leader at the airport.  A flight is delayed and about to misconnect.  The city the group is heading to is a small one in southern Italy with minimal flight service.  The team looks at the situation and begins to make preparations and adjustments to get the itinerary back in shape.  The Tour Manager is contacted, flights begin rebooking, hotels are reorganized, sightseeings are shifted, restaurants are cancelled or added, and within a matter of hours, the itinerary is resynched, the teacher is informed, the Tour Manager is ready and repositioned, and we are back to normal.  In between, emails are flying back and forth looping people in.  The phone was active as the teacher was consulted and we moved the itinerary around.  Green light from the teacher, green light from the Tour Manager, and green light from the airlines.  Bottom line, we’re back on track.

Putting all of these various parts together and getting back on track is what we do.  The most important player in our team is the Group Leader.  A cool and calm Group Leader will be able to give us the information that we need to start making our contingency plans.  Often we are moving dinners, setting up overnights, changing trains, or reorganizing Tour Managers.  It’s complicated.  However, all of the time, it is behind the scenes so that the only concern the Group Leader has is keeping everybody in the group in a good space while we deal with the situation.  Communicating back and forth so that we can synchronize our air with our land, add services, pull the Tour Manager into position, is the magic that our staff perform quite often while the group is in the air.

Once you land in your destination, we’re still there, checking in and making sure you have everything you need. We have staff constantly traveling to catch up with teachers and students mid-tour to ask about everything from the soup at dinner to the pace of the tour itinerary. I myself enjoy popping over to visit as many groups as I can and love seeing the surprise on teachers faces when I show up (“Yes, hello, I am the company President, how may I make your tour better?” always produces a few wide eyes!). It’s this kind of attention to detail, attention to the clients who become members of our family, that makes our service above and beyond. With our Quality of Care, you’re in good hands.

Travel changes lives.

ACIS has educational travel services second to none.