Education Today Education Today Magazine
UK school trips are being reshaped by curriculum pressure and cost scrutiny, with new figures revealing a rise in subject-linked travel over general ‘cultural enrichment’.
According to the 2025 School Trip Index, from the UK’s largest educational travel group PGL Beyond, one in two school trips is now directly tied to a core subject, with modern foreign languages and history accounting for almost half (46 per cent) of all travel bookings made by UK schools. General ‘cultural’ or ‘primary’ trips now make up just 16 per cent of all visits.1
The data – drawn from over 5,000 trips taken by over 200,000 children from across the UK – shows a growing expectation that school travel must justify time away from the classroom through clear educational outcomes.
“Teachers are telling us they need to demonstrate the curriculum value of every hour outside school,” said Linda Green, Head of Educational Destinations at PGL Beyond, the group which includes PGL, NST, European Study Tours and StudyLink Tours. “Trips are no longer just rewards – they’re expected to deliver measurable impact on learning, bringing subjects to life, from glaciation in Iceland to language immersion in Spain.”
France remains the top destination overall, with one in four trips by UK schools heading across the Channel in 2025, but Spain is fast catching up as the modern foreign language destination of choice, fuelled by a wider shift in language teaching. In 2025, Spanish accounted for 38 per cent of all modern foreign language tours, catching up to France’s 48 per cent.
PGL Beyond’s booking data shows:
- French trips have halved over 20 years – from 20 per cent of all bookings in 2005 to just 10.9 per cent in 2025
- Spanish trips have increased by 46 per cent, rising from 6.5 per cent to 9.5 per cent over the same period
- German travel has dropped from 7.9 per cent to just 3.5 per cent
- Barcelona remains one of the most in-demand destinations, with Madrid, Catalonia and Andalucia also popular
Official exam data backs the trend: while French remains the most widely taught language at primary, GCSE Spanish has now risen to almost the same popularity. This shift is even more pronounced at A-level, where Spanish has been the most popular modern foreign language for five consecutive years.
“Schools are aligning their language provision with student demand and global relevance,” added Green. “Travel reflects that shift as Spain is now seen as both practical and aspirational.”
For bringing history to life, WWI and WWII destinations continue to draw schools. In 2025, Berlin (9 per cent), Artois in France (9 per cent), and Ypres in Belgium (8 per cent) all ranked among the top 5 destinations. Krakow also made the top 10, with 3 per cent of school trips including a visit to Auschwitz.
After History, Geography is the next most popular subject (5 per cent), and Iceland ranks in the top 10 destinations for its relative affordability with strong, direct curriculum links. Performing arts trips made to see popular shows such as Wicked also accounted for 5 per cent of trips.
Despite pressure to align to the curriculum, a parent and pupil survey conducted by OnePoll to inform the report reveals that school trips continue to offer wider benefits for enrichment:
- A quarter (27 per cent) of young people say they are inspired to travel when they’re older because of school trips
- One in three of young people (30 per cent) have chosen a subject because of a specific school trip, with the top subjects chosen including History (36 per cent), Geography (31 per cent) and Art (23 per cent).
- International visits are providing more young people with their first opportunity to travel by plane (16 per cent) compared to their parents’ generation (8 per cent)
“Schools are using travel to meet multiple strategic objectives, from curriculum alignment to cultural enrichment, and even employability,” Green concludes. “There is growing accountability for every educational experience, yet teachers also know that well-structured school trips provide life-long benefits that are far harder to quantify.”
