New member interview: GoXplore – WYSE Travel Confederation

We enjoy sharing the success stories of all our members and today we put the spotlight on GoXplore, a Scandinavian work and travel organisation that offers young travellers the opportunity to experience life in other countries. GoXplore Managing Director Fredrick Dahlberg tells us more about these opportunities and a bit about the future plans of this exciting organisation.

Tell us your story. How did your business get started?

In 2001 the Working Holiday Visa to Australia was released in Scandinavia and we started Work & Travel Company Sweden, which was the first organisation to promote this concept to the market. The year after Norway got the same visa and Work & Travel Company Norway was started. We had great partners on site in Australia and we were 100 % committed to promote working and travelling and have been ever since. In 2009 we decided to merge the two companies and rebrand as GoXplore Norway and GoXplore Sweden.

What are your unique selling points? What makes you different?

Fourteen years and several thousands travellers later we still have our work and travel programmes to Australia, but in addition we now offer a lot of other programmes that combine work with travelling, like volunteering, conservation and teaching. From the start we’ve stayed true to our niche of offering programmes that combine work and travel, and we have always walked the extra mile. We have not been offering the cheapest programmes but they are the best, and we spend a lot of resources in training our staff to deliver the best possible service to satisfy our clients. We help our travellers from start to end and by being able to offer a full-service concept with programmes, flights, insurances and all other services that are needed, we make it very easy for our travellers to take the first step on their great adventures.

What are some of your success stories?

We have always had a strong online presence making it easy to chose us. We have also through the years built an extensive in-house knowledge base with our staff having a combined experience of over 50 years in the trade. Having a local presence in more than one country has helped us to see trends faster and act accordingly to satisfy arising needs.

What are your future plans?

To keep delivering high service to our travellers, develop new destinations and programmes and continue our expansion into other countries. We have just launched a website for the Finnish market so focus will be on getting that up and running and explore the potential we believe is there. We have a lot of plans but you also never know what comes along and that is a beautiful part of the future.

Which trends and challenges do you see in the youth travel sector?

People have always liked to socialise and interact, maybe now more than ever so we believe that group travel in many ways and forms is and will be the trend for travelling. Challenges for the travel sector are the uncertainties in the world, conflicts, outbreak of diseases and so forth. There have always been a lot of challenges in running a company in the youth travel business but that also makes it a lot more interesting than the norm.

What was your motivation to join WYSE Travel Confederation?

We have been to WYSTC many times now so joining WYSE Travel Confederation was a natural step to take. We were also keen to enjoy the benefits of being part of the global youth travel community and networking with like-minded organisations to share opinions and ideas.

Any top tips for people starting out in the youth travel sector?

You need to be passionate about what you do and be ready for some interesting challenges. It is a very dynamic market that moves fast and you need to be able to listen to the market and communicate in many ways. If you succeed it is truly a great industry to be active in with so many great companies and cool people, best of luck!

Share your story

WYSE Travel Confederation values all of its members and enjoys hearing and sharing the stories behind the brands and organisations that build up our ever growing community of service providers to the youth and student travel industry. If you would like to see your story here contact us, or join WYSE as a member.

Join WYSE Travel Confederation

If you’d like to join WYSE Travel Confederation and benefit from new connections, free access to industry research, informative webinar sessions, discounts on industry events and brand exposure within the youth and student travel industry, click here to find out more.