Explorica Educational Travel Wins Communicator Awards’ Award of Distinction
Explorica Recognized for Creative Excellence and Superior Quality
Boston, MA – June 15, 2010 – Explorica, a company creating educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people, received six Awards of Distinction from the Communicator Awards, the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. The Award of Distinction is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement. Explorica received the Award of Distinction in the following areas: Corporate Image, Menu Design, Travel/Tourism Website, Viral Marketing, Home Page and Educational Video.
“It's an honor to be recognized with these Awards of Distinction,” said Olle Olsson, president and chief executive officer of Explorica. “I am thrilled that the outstanding work and creativity of the dedicated staff of our Explorica team is acknowledged by the industry-leading representatives at the Communicator Awards.”
The Communicator Awards is the leading international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals. Founded by communication professionals over a decade ago, the Communicator Awards receives over 9,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world. The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms.
About Explorica, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, visit Explorica Educational Travel's Website, join Explorica on Facebook or follow Explorica on Twitter.
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Explorica Enhances Educational Travel Experience Through Social Media
Interactive Treasure Hunt Tour shares clues and updates via Facebook to immerse and educate students in advance of the trip
Boston, MA – April 22, 2010 – Students preparing for the educational tour of a lifetime are getting a sneak peek at the places they will visit and things they will learn as part of Explorica’s Treasure Hunt tour. Explorica (http://www.explorica.com/), a company creating educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people, is sharing clues via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/explorica) in advance of the upcoming Treasure Hunt tour to enhance student learning through social media. The Explorica Treasure Hunt offers Explorica’s traditional interactive learning experience, coupled with a one-of-a-kind program designed to stimulate an online and offline immersive travel experience.
Student tour groups participating in Treasure Hunt challenges are eligible to win $10,000 to develop hands-on, experiential learning programs for their school. The customized Treasure Hunt requires students to complete in challenges and answer clues on the region to be visited before and during the tour. Group participants are provided a ‘Survivor Pack,’ that includes tools for solving various challenges. These challenges, along with tour updates and on-tour “missions” are provided through the group tour’s Facebook page (http://www.explorica.com/treasure-hunt/clues.aspx), which serves as “mission control” for all pre-, during- and post- tour activities.
Students can share information, learn about their destinations, publish content and stay connected while traveling. Teachers and students can upload photos and tour updates through other social media outlets including Twitter and MySpace.
“Explorica strives to deliver the best, most immersive educational student group tours in the industry. Social media is a critical channel to initially engage tour participants, and helps ensure that teachers and students have a rewarding educational travel experience,” said Olle Olsson, president and chief executive officer of Explorica. “The real benefit comes during the actual tour, when all the prior learning through social media comes to life. Facebook and other tools lets parents and friends at home follow the progress of the tour groups, and provides a robust environment for sharing tour experiences while traveling and upon the students’ return home.”
About Explorica, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, visit Explorica Educational Travel's Website, join Explorica on Facebook or follow Explorica on Twitter.
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Explorica Educational Travel Wins Best in Class from 2009 Interactive Media Awards
Website Recognized for Planning, Execution, and Professionalism
Boston, MA – December 14, 2009 – Explorica, a company creating educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people, has been awarded Best in Class from the Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC) in the Travel and Tourism category for its newly redesigned web site, Explorica.com. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards and represents the very best in website planning, execution and overall professionalism. Winners are selected based on five criteria: design, content, feature functionality, usability, and standards compliance and cross-browser compatibility.
“It's an honor to be recognized by the Interactive Media Awards,” said Olle Olsson, president and chief executive officer of Explorica. “In redesigning our website, we wanted to offer teachers unparalleled access to all of the resources and tools needed to provide students with the opportunity to explore the world and benefit from a hands-on learning experience. This award is a tribute to the creativity and ingenuity of all the individuals that worked on the site and helped us to achieve our goal.”
Explorica’s winning website features the Instant Tour Customizer (ITC), the travel industry’s first online tool that allows teachers to personally customize educational tours with both flexibility and travel options. Additionally, the website includes a Tour Center that lets teachers personalize and promote their customized Explorica tour. Teachers can upload photos and links and share the Tour Center with prospective participants though email and social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
Created by the Interactive Media Council, Inc. (IMC), a nonprofit organization of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals, the competition is designed to elevate the standards of excellence on the Internet and offer winners a boost in marketing and exposure. IMC serves as the primary sponsor and governing body of the Interactive Media Awards™, establishes the judging system, and provides the judges for the competition.
About Explorica, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, visit Explorica Educational Travel's Website, join Explorica on Facebook or follow Explorica on Twitter.
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Explorica Launches Travel Industry’s First Instant Tour Customizer
Website provides both flexibility and travel options for creating customized educational tours
Boston, MA – October 29, 2009 – Explorica, a company creating educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people, today announced the launch of its Instant Tour Customizer (ITC). The ITC is the travel industry’s first online tool that allows teachers to personally customize educational tours with both flexibility and travel options.
Available through Explorica’s new website, the ITC provides teachers with the ability to customize every aspect of their tour using a simple drag-and-drop feature, allowing for easy control of price, tour pace and degree of personalization. Each tour modification, including adding or removing tour activities, is instantly reflected in the price quote. This feature lets teachers see the cost of their customizations in real time.
Using the ITC, teachers can also upgrade to premium level accommodations and change dining options for the entire tour or on select days. This ability to mix, match, edit and save ensures each step of the tour is ideal for the group.
“Our new Instant Tour Customizer gives teachers complete control over the details of their tour, ensuring both teachers and students have the most rewarding educational travel experience,” said Olle Olsson, president and chief executive officer of Explorica. “Creating a customized tour is now as fast and simple as shopping online. Pick what you want, drag it to your tour, and find out the cost in real time. The ease-of-use of this powerful new tool provides teachers with the ability to personalize their tour in a way that has never been available in the travel industry.”
Additionally, Explorica’s new website features a Tour Center that lets teachers personalize and promote their customized Explorica tour. Teachers can upload photos and links and share the Tour Center with prospective participants though email and social media outlets including Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
To learn more, click on the following link to view a video tutorial of Explorica’s Instant Tour Customizer: www.explorica.com/tourcustomizer.
About Instant Tour Customizer
The Instant Tour Customer (ITC) is the travel industry’s first and only online tool that allows teachers to easily create a one-of-kind and fully customized educational tours for their students. Available only through the Explorica website, the ITC gives teachers complete control over every aspect of their tour’s design with the click of a mouse.
About Explorica, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, or visit www.explorica.com.
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Arizona High School Student Wins Travel Photo Contest
June 19, 2009. Mesa, AZ-- Holly Vins, a recent graduate of Mountain View High School was named the winner of Explorica Educational Travel's spring Student Photo Contest.
Vins was awarded the grand prize, a $300 gift card to Amazon.com, for her adventurous landscape shot atop a cliff at Machu Picchu in Peru.
“It feels pretty great to win," said Vins. " I try to take artistic shots; usually of groups or landscapes. With this one, I looked for an interesting scene and was able to get a good picture. "
Vins, who has traveled on two Explorica tours, said Machu Picchu was her favorite destination. "I love the history of it; it's survived so many things." She said the amazing view from above the ruins was where she snapped the contest's winning photo.
The contest, which was open to students who traveled with Explorica in April and May, allowed them to share their pictures on Flickr.com, the popular photo sharing site. The rules required photos to showcase the experience of travel and the culture of their destinations. The contest winners can be viewed on Explorica's website.
"Our educational tours provide great opportunities for students to learn through experience," said Olle Olsson, President and CEO of Explorica. “This contest allowed us to reward them for capturing authentic moments in a candid way. From the entries we received, we can tell they are learning and having fun at the same time."
Explorica launched a second photo contest for tour groups departing this summer. With destinations ranging from France to Costa Rica, its likely to generate a variety of worthy submissions. "I'm sure our travelers will continue to send in great work," added Olsson.
Vins will take her travel experience with her in the fall when she begins studying global health at ASU. "I'd love to do something that involves travel and helping people," she added.
About Explorica, Inc.
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, or visit www.explorica.com.
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Explorica Offers Special Assistance to Voyageur Travelers
May 14, 2009. Boston, MA -- In the wake of Voyager Educational Tour's declaration of bankruptcy, Explorica Educational Travel has decided to use their strong financial standing in the marketplace to offer special assistance to Voyageur Travelers.
Explorica is offering up to 50% off select tours to Europe and Latin America, and other assistance programs to those who have scheduled a 2010 Voyageur tour.
Explorica firmly believes that educational travel is a vital part of a complete education, and that the life-changing experiences it provides should be available to all.
It is this belief, along with Explorica’s strong financial stability, that motivates the company to reach out to Voyageur travelers.
As members of the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA), Explorica has posted a $1 million dollar liability deposit, which ensures your educational travel investment is covered.
Additionally, as accredited and longstanding members of organizations like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), and the Student Youth Travel Association (SYTA), we are held to keep the highest standards within the industry.
Call 1.888.310.7120 to find out more about our offer of assistance to all Voyageur travelers.
About Explorica Educational Travel
Founded in 2000, Explorica Educational Travel creates educational tours that connect students to new cultures, languages and people. Through Explorica's use of exclusive online tools, they help teachers create tours uniquely suited to provide both the best value and the most customized, authentic tour experiences. For more information, call 1.888.310.7120, or visit www.explorica.com.
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