/ S-Trip! Blazes a Trail in Student Travel

by Anokhi Admin

S-Trip! Blazes a Trail in Student Travel

Jul 07, 2014

A self-described “tour rat,” Alex Handa takes voluntourism to a global scale with his student travel programs.

Handa also wanted every employee to adopt the standards upon which the company was founded. As a result, he originated the idea of an employee mantra to be created by staff . Parts of the mantra include “Bring the fun” and “No gossiping” which is enforced by all employees.

Alexandre J. Handa learned from a young age that the most critical aspect of business is treating customers with compassion. Handa, president of S-Trip!, a travel company specializing in organized student travel, was introduced to the world of travel by his teacher-parents who started a health food store in Ottawa, Ontario when they could not find the foods they wanted in 1970s Canada. Weekly get-togethers at the health food store with fellow teachers who shared information about their vacations evolved into a travel club and gave Handa’s father the idea of launching a travel agency, Handa Travel.

The Makings of a Travel Tour Entrepreneur

From age four to six, Handa spent time with his peripatetic parents on winter tours in India where he became a “tour rat” and then would return to school for two weeks. Handa’s international adventures at a young age presented deeply contrasting images to his Canadian upbringing. In India, he says, “I saw an elephant come up to my grandmother’s door. Also, in 1980s India, there were no cars, but of course it’s changed dramatically since then.”

At 13, Handa was working as a travel agent for his father’s company. At 18, he was planning trips for students. He then attended the University of Italian Switzerland in Mendrisio to study architecture. Handa says that his education prepared him for becoming an entrepreneur: “As an architect, you learn to solve problems. You have to understand the client’s needs and how a problem has been designed in the past. You end up creating something that never existed.”

After graduating, Handa backpacked in South America, lived in India for one and a half years and contemplated becoming a professional surfer in Brazil. After experiencing restlessness, he decided to create S-Trip! in 2005.

S-Trip! is Born

S-Trip! offers high school and university students organized trips including grad trips, resort getaways or volunteering in an international community. S-Trip! staff facilitate all activities and attend student excursions. Grad trip is a one-week, allinclusive vacation to the Caribbean with a volunteer cultural excursion for high school students. An S-Trip! grad trip that took place in March 2014 involved students travelling to Punta Cana to build a house for an impoverished family. The students also toured the local school and cleaned parts of the community. Another group of S-Trip! students will be returning this summer to build a daycare centre.

Currently, S-Trip! employs 150 full-time employees and organizes trips for 50,000 students annually to over 40 countries. While S-Trip!’s workforce includes employees with various educational, socio-economic, sexual and cultural backgrounds, many of Handa’s staff are millennials. Handa believes he knows what Generation Y employees desire including a bright, cubiclefree office, a rooftop patio at S-Trip!’s Queen and John Street location, and Friday night get-togethers. But S-Trip! goes beyond that. The company offers its staff several retreats per year that have included trips to the Caribbean. A recent Mont- Tremblant retreat involved renting a villa where staff could brainstorm on topics such as planning their dream trip.

An Open Corporate Culture

What’s remarkable about S-Trip! is not only its cataclysmic growth since its inception in 2005 (PROFIT Magazine recently named S-Trip! the 25th fastest growing company in Canada), but the open corporate culture fostered by Handa. “Everyone says hello and goodbye to each other every day,” he says. “This is something I learned in Switzerland. Think back to when you were in school. What was the best part? Recess when you got to see your friends. We try to create a friends-first environment.” This supportive attitude extends to job performance. At S-Trip!, staff participate in setting individually-tailored sales targets and bonuses. “Every person is unique. Some are motivated by giving them goals to strive for. Some aren’t good at showing up on time.” By setting individual plans, he notes, “We try to allow people’s assets to shine.” Surprisingly, Handa found that his staff were selecting higher targets than he would have assigned them.

Handa also found that as S-Trip! grew, he needed to adopt more of a hands-off approach with respect to decision-making. “We started to flip the organization on its head,” he states, which resulted in team leaders, mentored by senior management, coming up with business plans. Handa also wanted every employee to adopt the standards upon which the company was founded. As a result, he originated the idea of an employee mantra to be created by staff. Parts of the mantra include “Bring the fun” and “No gossiping” which is enforced by all employees. It is a mantra that obviously works because in 2013, S-Trip! was chosen by Deloitte as one of Canada’s 50 best managed companies.

Show Your Customers Compassion

Handa’s compassion for his staff extends to his customers. “Something I learned as a young travel agent is you need to show people compassion. You need to have hospitality in your blood,” says Handa. “One of our student trips involved a high school graduate who had been cancer-free for a year. We organized a surprise party for him at a disco and students from the whole school attended. We received letters and emails from his family and friends as a result of this event.” S-Trip! also offers tailored trips for persons with special needs such as students in wheelchairs or with peanut allergies. Word-of-mouth endorsements have paid dividends for S-Trip! The company has an “advertising spend as close to zero as we can possibly be,” Handa says.

One of the challenges S-Trip! faces is appealing to both parents and students. “We need the trust of the parents that it will be a safe trip and we need the trust of students that they’ll have fun,” he says. To accomplish both of these objectives, Handa created the company motto: “Is it fun and safe?” as a planning framework for trips.

For students considering voluntourism, Handa advises: “My greatest experiences happened outside of a classroom. Travel opens the mind to how different the world operates.” He believes voluntourism is taking hold with Generation Y because they are more aware of being global citizens.

When asked what is most rewarding about overseeing S-Trip!, Handa responds, “Seeing people grow on a personal level. I’m not a parent yet, but it must be like that.”

BY LORI BOSWORTH

_{PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF S-TRIP!}

PUBLISHED IN THE HEALTH & WELLNESS ISSUE/SUMMER 2014