Youth and student travellers coming to the UK contribute £22.3bn to the country’s economy, however, with average growth of 4.7% over the last five years, the sector is not keeping pace with the country’s overall tourism market.

The youth travel industry is set to double by 2020 according to youth travel consulting and development company StudentMarketing. The trend will be driven mostly by educational and experiential travel and offers a "huge opportunity" to providers, it claims. Last year 207 million trips were taken by youth travellers, roughly 40% involving education.