The language travel market - Brazil

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Language stays are stays of varying length in a foreign country to learn or improve the language of the country.

People who go on these trips are :

• Children (less than 12 years old)
• Teenagers (12-18 years old)
• Adults

The stays are usually during school holidays and usually last between two and four week even though the duration can be longer, depending on the type of stay (it can take up to a whole year). In general, there are between 15 and 18 hours of classes per week, and up to 3 to 5 extra hours for an intensive course. The content and intensity of a stay vary according to the student's goals and organizations may offer formulas ranging from preparing and writing an exam to more leisure-based stays to promote oral fluency and cultural exploration.

The global language travel market has seen impressive growth in recent years, both in value and volume, due to the increasing attention given to foreign language learning, internationalization and inclusion. Among the main players in the market are specialized language holiday agencies, associations and organizations with their own language schools. In recent years, the proposed offers and formulas have evolved, as has the target audience. The offer has been extended to a larger number of countries, even if fluency in English remains the main motivation for this type of trip.

With an increasingly internationalized economy, the Brazilian labor market now demands more frequently the mastery of other languages (mainly English). As a consequence, more and more individuals are becoming interested in this type of stay, also in search of an improvement of their human capital. In this context, the Brazilian international education market grew 20.46% in 2018. In the same year, 365 thousand Brazilians embarked to study in foreign countries, being Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Malta the most sought after destinations. Another detail is that 60% of people who travel are women and most travel alone. As much as young people are the largest target audience, there is a growing trend for exchange among consumers over 40. Although most students begin researching the service via the Internet, 67 percent of customers make the final decision at the physical stores of the exchange agencies.