GCU students promote foreign travel advice as part of important new Government campaign
Two GCU students have been given the exciting opportunity of working on a government campaign focused on foreign travel advice, as part of a new campaign run by the UK Foreign Office.
International Fashion Branding and International Business students Eva Gaffney and Marina Bendelow were given the role of Student Ambassadors for the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office’s (FCDO) Travel Aware campaign.
The FCDO aims to inform British nationals so they can make decisions about travelling abroad, which is now being further supported by the Travel Aware campaign. The aim is to promote safe traveling, with particular focus on younger travellers.
As Student Ambassadors, Eva and Marina will be using social media to create engaging and informative content to make people more aware of advice regarding foreign travel.
We spoke to Eva and Marina about the importance of the campaign and the plans they have for their role:
How did the opportunity to apply for the Student Ambassador role come about?
(Eva) “I just got an email from the International Mobility team at the university and they were advertising an interesting opportunity to work with the Foreign Office. The email came with a link to an application form which involved some questions, and then it explained that they would be in touch if you made it to the next stage of the application process. The interview itself involved creating a video and to submit two articles.”
For those who don’t know, what is involved in the Travel Aware Student Ambassador role?
(Marina) “The idea behind the role is to make the very serious subject of travel safety awareness lighthearted. The goal is to make information about it more accessible and to aim it at people of a younger age, mainly as more younger people are travelling abroad alone or with friends. Generally, this is an audience that might not be aware of certain things about the country they are going to. This is especially important now as people haven’t had the chance to travel over the past few years due to the pandemic and may have generally forgot about things to be aware of when travelling.”
(Eva) “Before the pandemic, people were travelling all the time so it’s obviously been put on hold for a couple of years. In that time, people might assume that they still know everything when it comes to travelling but it’s natural to forget and let your guard down. Brexit, for example, means that certain countries will stamp your passport, but once your passport is full then you won’t be let into the country. It’s small key safety facts like this that people might not be aware of. “
What sort of things will you be doing as part of the role?
(Eva) “We’ll be using social media to help share information about the campaign, using a minimum of two social media platforms. I’m going to be using Instagram and I’m thinking of using Pintrest as my second platform. It’s a different kind of platform to use, but Pinterest is really great for blogs – all you need to do is click a ‘pin’ and it will direct you to a website. I posted something recently and within an hour it already had 400 views, so it shows that the information is engaging and the posts are working.”
(Marina) “The idea is to create a permanent social media post and one temporary post, as well as write two articles per week. We really just need to make sure all of our content is seen and that people are engaging with it.”
How does it feel getting the chance to have such an important role?
(Eva) “I was actually really excited! They told us that thousands of people had applied for the role and there were specific reasons for why they chose us – we both travel a lot and study related subjects. It feels so good to have a job like this at our age, to be working with the government on this really important travel safety campaign. It ties in perfectly with my degree – social media and marketing which I’m really interested in.”
(Marina) “It’s something to be really proud of. To be working alongside the government and not from a partisan perspective – it’s almost like working as a civil servant, which is really cool. Usually, only one student is chosen per university, but both myself and Eva were picked which we think is a good thing!”
You got the chance to visit the UK Foreign Office – what was that like?
(Eva) “When we first got told that we had got the job, we were asked to visit the Foreign Office a few days later for some training. It involved some talks and they explained what they expected from us, as well as a tour of the building.”
(Marina) It was really interesting! We got to meet their Intervention Team and a charity called Jack the Lad, which was made in memory of a young man who passed away whilst on holiday. The government works really closely with the charity because it ties in so much with the whole campaign. We also got to meet the person that manages the Gov.uk Foreign Travel Advice webpage, which was really interesting as well.”
Why is this role especially important in these current times?
(Marina) “People are going to be quite nervous to travel again after the pandemic, which is understandable. For example, my dad who used to travel abroad a lot for work and was suddenly quite anxious about travelling again - this surprised me. This is what the Travel Aware campaign is focused on, making people feel more confident again to travel abroad.
Having the knowledge of different countries can make people’s travel experience a lot better. This doesn’t need to necessarily focuses on the dangers abroad, but also general information like currency, exchange rates etc. Having that extra knowledge can only be a positive and it will allow you to enjoy yourself knowing that you’re more aware.”
Find out more about the Travel Aware campaign on their website
By Rachael McAlonan
Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media