THE July 6 plane crash at San Francisco International Airport in the United States that killed three Chinese teenagers is likely to prompt changes in regulations governing overseas study tours in China.

    Following the accident, the Zhejiang Education Department ordered local schools and related institutions to temporarily suspend participation in overseas summer camps and study tours. Those who had already paid for trips and signed contracts would be allowed to travel, but no new tours would be booked, the department said. The suspension could last as long as a year, according to insiders.

    “All schools should make sure the parents of participating students are fully informed about the agencies organizing the trips, along with their schedules and fees. Moreover, parents should be briefed about the safety of the places their children will visit,” said Shu Peidong, head of the department’s foreign affairs section. He added that the department would take steps to ensure that the agencies and their schedules met national standards.

    The victims, Wang Linjia, 17, Ye Mengyuan, 16, and 15-year-old Liu Yipeng, were students at Jiangshan Middle School in Zhejiang Province.

    Some parents have said the school organized the trip. But the principal, Mao Zhuoxing, denied any involvement and said the school simply served as a link between the tour company and the students.

    “The school did not have any financial relationship with the company. The parents themselves negotiated the prices and signed contracts with the agency,” Mao said.

    The tour company, Zhejiang Boyue International Cultural Consulting and Services Co., hired teachers from the school to accompany the students.

    Rao Limin is the mother of a Jiangshan Middle School student who was a member of the ill-fated tour group, which arrived back in China on Saturday. She said that when her son, Mao Yihui, brought the tour brochures home she assumed the school would be involved in the trip. She insisted that she did not even know the name of the company when she paid for the tour.

    “We just paid the money and thought the school would be responsible for everything else,” said Rao, who admitted she didn’t read the contract before signing it.

    The 15-day program involved visits to university campuses, including UCLA, the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. The cost was 29,300 yuan (US$4,773), excluding visa fees.

    “As long as his English-language skills can be improved by the study tour, we are willing to give him the opportunity to see the world. Money is not our primary concern,” Rao said.

    Parents who share Rao’s opinion said the events in San Francisco haven’t affected their plans to send their children overseas.

    The market has surged in the past two or three years as an increasing number of parents have begun to realize the benefits of sending their children abroad on short-term study tours.

    In 2012, 200,000 Chinese children traveled overseas on study tours, producing a market worth 6 billion yuan, according to official statistics quoted by the China News website.

    “The Chinese study tour market is huge and has great potential. The children are happy to travel abroad and take part in interesting summer activities, and the parents hope their children will gain more skills,” said Li Huanyu, China vice-president of All Americas Inc. The company entered the Chinese market in 2005 and provides educational programs and business training, and arranges trade shows between the United States and China.

    Li said the company has seen a huge surge in Chinese demand for study tours overseas. The number of applications rose threefold between 2010 and 2011 and Li expects the annual rate of increase to be about 20 percent for the next few years.

    He noted that while most education agencies in China are authorized to offer summer study programs for students, some travel agencies are attempting to enter the market and boost profits by providing tours that have more to do with sightseeing than study.

    However, the events in San Francisco are likely to prompt changes.

    “The accident will definitely affect the market temporarily as potential customers hesitate, but on the positive side any travel agencies running unauthorized programs will disappear as the monitoring system is tightened,” said a sales manager in the global study tours department of Longre Education Group in Shanghai.

    He said competition will become more fierce, which will force providers to offer programs with much higher standards.

    One expert said sending children overseas on study tours is a personal choice that only parents can make, but urged them to be wary of money traps and to carefully weigh all the decisions they make.

    Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, stressed that customers must have greater awareness of their rights when choosing agencies and signing contracts, and urged the relevant authorities to introduce stringent regulations of the booming market.

    (SD-Agencies)