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Our Story
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 Our Customers are Passionate about Travel
Our customers are passionate about travel. They expect a positive life changing experience and they need a travel company which will reward them for their spirit of adventure.
They are educated, sophisticated, they expect the best. They’re young, they live day to day and they may change their mind tomorrow… they’re hard to please. But they know a good thing when they see it.
They want to do so much. They explore different cultures, experiencing the rich diversity of people and places all over the world; they want to study, work, play and learn, gaining maximum return from everything they do.
So from us, information and efficiency must be matched by the kind of flexibility and reliability on a world-wide scale no ordinary travel company can guarantee.
Our customers want products tailored to their needs and value allowing them to get more for less.
Our staff… making the difference for you and us
People who work for us are the embodiment of the brand: passionate about travel, committed to our customers and to the success and purpose of the company.
It’s hard to tell the difference between our people and their customers – and that’s a major strength. The value of travel is central to their philosophy of life: they’ve been, seen and experienced, they’re truly advising from personal knowledge.
As real, seasoned travellers, our staff have helped to establish our unrivalled reputation across the globe. Young and dynamic – the average age is the mid 20s – they are encouraged to feel a part of a single company that knows where to go and how it wants to get there.
Sicne we promote internally, our management is also young. They are given authority to develop local markets, establishing a brand which is both around the corner and around the world.
As local as possible – as global as necessary
Question:
How to remain close to the individual needs of each customer while delivering truly exciting, surprising and adventuresome and thrilling value experiences from a company which is necessarily global.
Answer:
By insisting on a local control of everything which meets customers needs – and only building global solutions when this improves the quality of those needs.
This approach reflects the expectations of our customers – each of whom have their own preferences, their own culture and their own reasons for their individual choices –and yet want the security of sophisticated delivery.
Our customer want us to meet their individual requirements whenever and however they make contact.
STA Travel retail is meeting this need through on-line bookings and product information (through a choice of www.statravel.com or local Web addresses), dedicated call centres and over 400 retail branches best located for our core markets.
This blend of access provides choices to meet every need – including whether to ask for experienced advice – or go right ahead and do it on-line.
STA Travel is not present everywhere so we have distribution partners – from Vietnam to Venezuela – who, like us, are market specialists; supported by STA Travel through the quality of our brand and our products. Our partners develop the markets they know best, working to match our exceptionally high standards of business and customer care.
Outcome:
Add together each and every local relationship; overlay them with a strong uniform service offer and delivery system to provide a unique value outcome for each customer.
The World of STA Travel
Companies now within STA Travel have been trading for over 50 years, though our current trading name was established in 1979. Since then we have expanded our retail operation into five continents.
Over the last two years we have established franchises in Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and China. And most recently we have acquired ÖKISTA, Austria’s leading student travel company – and started retailing in Norway and Finland.
STA Travel has been owned since 1979 by Diethelm Keller Holding Ltd. A Swiss private company, whose core values and aims remain as genuine today as they were when it was founded over 100 years ago: building entrepreneurial businesses with long-term goals.
Specially bonded contracts, supported by Credit Suisse who are the company’s bankers, provide total security for both partners and customers. Our auditors are PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Innovative Products and Services… which make a difference for you and us
STA Travel builds long term relationships with our suppliers, who recognise that today’s student is tomorrow’s travelling professional. They appreciate their unrivalled access to this valuable market through the world-wide distribution of our global business. We are constantly working with them, proposing ways in which to enhance the value of the STA Travel offer while developing initiatives to stimulate our market’s appetite for travel.
Most of our customers hold an International Student Identity Card. Backed by UNESCO, iti s a card with unique international recognition. ISIC cards are regulated by the International Student Travel Confederation, of which STA Travel is a leading member. The card represents a globally trusted control mechanism – as well as being great value for customers.
The STA Travel ticket lies at the core of our business – manufactured in line with the highest IATA standards – helping our work with all the world’s major airlines. This allows us to create different products and service standards using our own resources, rather than those of our airline partners.
Our in-house team provides a broad range of products, including co-ordinated, flexible hotel and hostel booking and an exciting new market in ground products. As a result of this diversity, we are increasing the scope of our suppliers while expanding the choice for our customers, constantly bringing new energy to market.
Our customer support package, Travel Help, provides reassurance to both travellers and their families: tickets can be changed at minimal cost and time almost anywhere in the world; if they have been lost or stolen, they can be replaced without fuss. Such flexibility and reliability in our products is priceless in a crisis.
The Future
Our sign will hang over thousands of store fronts and light up millions of computer screens around the world. Our customers will recognise it as their travel company, reflecting their dreams, aspirations and lifestyles.
We have big plans. We plan to dominate the student and youth market and grow aggressively in our niche.
This is a plan that involves everyone in the company, in every country we operate, helping to build the future business. This is known as our ‘One Company’ strategy and focuses on:
- Expanding our reach
- Providing global support and great service to our customers
- Providing simple, efficient global distribution for our suppliers
- Sharing our talent, expertise and ideas
- Providing global job opportunities for our staff
Key to bringing the strategy to life is an ambitious technology project called ‘BLUEe’
BLUEe will be the envy of the travel industry. We will have a fast, efficient, global system that will connect 5 million travellers from 75 countries to 2500 staff. Needless to say it’s a big job. BLUEe won’t be complete until 2003.
The STA Travel brand defines international travel for young people. We excel because the focus on our target market is finely tuned and our relationship with that market has no equal. By insisting on value for our stakeholders, we set ourselves a vigorous challenge. We can rise to it because we believe in what we do.
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