There has been an increase in the number of young people booking and planning their gap year in good time for the February peak in departures.
To help the estimated additional 25,000 students who are taking an enforced gap year in 2009/10, worldwide travel insurance specialists, World First, have launched their “World First Gap Year Survival Guide” using a range of social media outlets including blogging, Facebook and Twitter .
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), has released figures which show that 25 per cent of gap year travellers could suffer a bad experience whilst travelling and other reports state that between 24 per cent and 49 per cent of young people take their gap year without taking out adequate (or any) backpacker travel insurance .
Alice Draper, from the Foreign Office, said: “We believe that the economic climate is encouraging some graduates to defer their careers and take time out to travel instead. This is leading to a greater demand for information, and we have seen a 75 per cent increase in visits to GoGapYear.com over the past year.”