Planning for the safety and security of student travelers while on a trip is vital for the school leadership team and for the Travel Organization arranging the tour. Having a student traveler tracking system is a great travel safety strategy to reduce overall risk.
While serving as the Sr. Director of Safety for People to People Ambassador Programs, I had the opportunity to work with a very creative team at a Dallas Texas company called Cellhire who provided the phones used by our tour leadership team and students on trips. Working together over the years, we continued to add new features to the phone to better protect our travelers. Ultimately, the global tracking solution was so successful, the product was branded VISMO, and a new company was established. VISMO stands for Visualization on the Mobile. Today, you don’t have to rent the phones but can buy SIMS cards on Amazon.com.
I recently invited Colin Dale, Vice President of Business Development at VISMO to share a case study that captures some of the benefit of a GPS tracking solution.
As part of a high school exchange program, Lucy planned to travel to Paris for eight weeks. Lucy and her parents were excited about the prospect of her studying abroad, but also had concerns about her safety, and being updated as to her travel plans. During her stay, Lucy had plans to visit the UK for a weekend. The student travel organization advised Lucy to download and activate a GPS tracking application on her smartphone device. The student leaders were set up as administrators on the account and had access to the online platform, which the device reported back into. The parents were given peace of mind that the student travel team was regularly updated with Lucy’s plans and locations.
Before the trip, Geo Fences were created around Lucy’s homestay in Paris, along with certain areas that were classified as high risk or dangerous (i.e. airport, outdoor market). When Lucy entered or exited these defined areas, a message was sent to the trip leaders.
When Lucy landed in Paris, a country change alert was automatically sent to the student travel team as an SMS message and an email. They also received a message for the Geo Fence entry as Lucy arrives at her homestay.
A few weeks into the trip, the student travel team became aware of an incident occurring in London. The team knew Lucy was in London for the weekend as they had received a country change alert message. The trip leaders could view her location within the city of London and were reassured that Lucy was located nowhere near the incident. The team did send Lucy a message via the tracking app alerting her of the situation. Lucy responded immediately and was able to get a taxi back to the safety of her homestay. If Lucy had been in a situation of duress, she could have activated the panic alert on her smartphone app and the trip leaders would have received notification that she was in trouble.
The use of GPS tracking for students’ devices while on academic trips is highly beneficial to the traveler and to the support team. It provides peace of mind and is reassuring for the student who is traveling, knowing they can quickly get in touch with the student travel team, in the event of an emergency.
Here’s wishing you all safe and healthy travels!