Rethinking Travel in Student Recruitment

Traditional international student recruitment heavily relies on travel and fairs, but data suggests we need to rethink this approach for better results. Modern recruitment requires purposeful travel strategies that prioritize relationships and outcomes over mere visibility.

• Face-to-face recruitment has value but shouldn't be the foundation of your strategy
• Many schools discover their highest enrollment comes from virtual relationships, not travel
• Travel should be purposeful and aligned with specific enrollment goals, not just habitual
• Consider hybrid approaches: fewer fairs, more virtual engagement with counselors and students
• Track data on which recruitment trips actually yield applications and enrollments
• Focus on building deeper relationships with key partners rather than maximum geographic coverage
• Ask yourself if you're traveling for results or just visibility

Subscribe to the Future of Recruitment Admissions by East Coast Admissions on your favorite platform, and don't forget to check out our student-facing podcast, the East Coast Admissions Podcast.

East Coast Admissions
The #1 College Admissions Counseling Service for the East Coast

Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 1:13 Rethinking Recruitment Travel
• 1:59 A Revealing Travel Budget Story
• 3:06 Smart Recruitment Travel Strategies
• 4:53 Questions to Reflect On
• 5:17 Final Thoughts & Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:48

Welcome to the Future of Recruitment and Admissions by East Coast Admissions. I'm your host, cleopatra, and I'm so glad you are here. This podcast is where we unpack the realities and reimagine the possibilities of recruitment and admissions in today's rapidly evolving education landscape. Whether you are an admissions rep, an enrollment manager or a school leader, this space is for you. Now let's get into today's topic rethinking recruitment travel. Let's be honest many of us still associate successful international student recruitment with frequent flyer miles and heavy fare calendars. It's what we've been trying to do Fly out, set up a booth and hand out brochures and pray that something sticks. Fares give us structure, they give us assets, but are they still giving us results? Don't get me wrong. Travel has its lease. Face-to-face interaction is powerful, but in today's world, relying solely on travel as a foundation of a recruitment strategy isn't just outdated, it's risky and unsustainable. Let me share a story that really solidified this for me. I once worked with a school that had a big travel budget. The admissions rep attended every major international fair you could think of. We are talking about beautiful booths, printed flyers, swag bags, you name it, but when we actually looked at the conversion data, it didn't add up. There was a ton of engagement at the fair but very little follow-up afterwards. The issue wasn't the fair themselves. The problem was that there was no clear post-event strategy, no intentional follow-up, no insights into which interactions had potential and, frankly, no alignment between travel and the school's actual enrollment goals. And here is the thing while this rep was on the road non-stop, their strongest student enrollment came from agents they rarely met in person and high schools they had partnered with virtually. That's when the school had to rethink everything.

Speaker 1: 3:06

So what does smart recruitment travel look like in today's context? First, travel should be purposeful, not habitual. Don't attend a fair just because it's what you've always done. Ask what's our goal here. What markets are we prioritizing? What outcomes are we measuring? Second, consider hybrid strategies. Maybe, instead of going to four fairs, you attend one and invest savings into virtual counselor roundtables, student webinars or in-country reps who can build your year-round presence. Third, build data into the process. Track with trips are yielding interest, inquiries, applications and enrollments. Don't just rely on anecdotes. Let your numbers speak. Last but not the least, think about relationship building, not just exposure. Instead of racing from city to city, what if you build deeper ties with a handful of feeder schools or agents in key markets.

Speaker 1: 4:15

If you are wondering whether it's time to revisit your travel approach, here are a few questions to reflect on. What is the actual return on your recent travel? Are you following up in meaningful ways? Could we achieve more by staying local? By going deeper? Are we traveling for results or just for visibility? It's time to move beyond fares and flyers, not to get rid of them entirely, but to make sure they are a part of a broader, more international recruitment strategy that centers relationships, outcomes and long-term impact. And I want to hear from you how are you approaching recruitment travel right now? What's working, what's working and what are you experimenting with? Let's keep the conversation going. Make sure to subscribe to the Future of Recruitment Admissions by East Coast Admissions on your favorite platform, and don't forget to check out our student-facing podcast, the East Coast Admissions Podcast. Thanks for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.