Addressing Safety & Security
By following the tips below, you can feel confident that your next trip will be a positive, life-changing experience for everyone involved.
Click here for a downloadable version of SYTA's Safety Tips.
General Safety Tips
- Advise your participants to limit the amount of cash they bring. Give everyone a guide of how much money they will need, or, advise them to bring a credit card or ATM card if there will be an opportunity to use it.
- Gather health care information from each family, and if you are traveling abroad, make sure each plan offers coverage. Ask your tour operator about purchasing travel insurance - which will often cover extras such as theft during the trip.
- Pack a simple first aid kit containing bandages, antibiotic cream, pain relievers, etc.
- Find out in advance which participants are taking medication. Advise them to keep any prescription medication in its original container, and bring a photocopy of all current prescriptions so they can more easily be replaced if lost.
- Have your participants make copies of airline tickets, passports and visas when applicable. It's a good idea for you to collect and hold on to these copies.
- Work with a tour operator that uses additional nightime security.
- Set rules to ensure that young people remain seated. Most accidents occur when passengers are standing in the aisles.
- Listen to emergency procedures and know how to use emergency windor exits.
- Make sure everyone knows the motorcoach number when off the coach.
- Keep your participants well clear of the door when waiting for it to open.
- Set rules ahead of time so your group knows to keep their seatbelts on at all times while seated.
- Pay attention to the pre-flight safety demonstration and make sure you know where your nearest exit is.
- Advise any of your participants that wear contact lenses to bring glasses for the flight. The recycled air can dry out eyes.
- Advise participants to keep doors locked and chained and never open their hotel room to a stranger.
- Read the fire instructions on the back of the room door, and know where the nearest fire emergency exit is located on the hall.
- In case of fire, never get into an elevator.
- Make sure your group knows to never leave valuables including passports in the hotel room. Use the hotel safe or an in-room safe if available.
- Make sure each person knows how to contact the front desk and the groups leader's room.
- Never enter your room if it is unlocked or if you are alone and someone is following you down the hall. Let them pass you before entering.
- Make sure your hotel door is shut and locked behind you.
- Make sure each participant has the name, address and phone number of the hotel at all times, as well as the tour company's 24-hour hotline.
- Advise your group to keep a small amount of money in their pockets to pay for small purchases so they do not have to open their wallet in a busy place.
- The best place to keep a wallet is in a sippered pocket on the inside of a jacket, or in a front pants pocket. Never carry a wallet in the back pocket.
- Use only authorized agents when exchanging money.
- Be awre that traffic laws vary in different places and look both ways when crossing the street.
- Do not leave luggage unattended in public areas and never accept packages from strangers.
- Institute a buddy system rule and make sure no one strays from the group.
Student & Youth Travel Association
8400 Westpark Drive, 2nd Floor, McLean, VA 22102-5116 | Phone: (703) 610-1263 | Fax: (703) 610-0270 | info@syta.org
8400 Westpark Drive, 2nd Floor, McLean, VA 22102-5116 | Phone: (703) 610-1263 | Fax: (703) 610-0270 | info@syta.org
Thanks for the advice...from a US teacher traveling soon with Prometour
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