Students help adventure centre chain to boost its business

A national chain of outdoor adventure parks has turned to a group of University of Northampton students to help it increase its school trip bookings.

Aerial Extreme, which has five high rope adventure courses across the Midlands and north of England, is looking to boost the number of schools using its Milton Keynes centre.

Six International Tourism Management undergraduates were enlisted with the task of finding solutions to the issue as a final-year project.

The group spent a day at Aerial Extreme, trying out activities suited for school trips, before contacting schools in the region to find out staff’s awareness and opinions of the centre.

The students presented their findings and recommendations to a committee of Aerial Extreme staff, including Sam McNally, who is responsible for the firm’s business development, and Jon Page, who manages the Milton Keynes centre.

The experience was beneficial for both parties, with Aerial Extreme able to gain an insight into how it can attract more business, while the students were given tips to help them fine-tune their research methods and presentation style from Sam.

Sam said: “I was really pleased with the presentation, which was well framed and everybody’s presentation styles were pretty strong and the group’s recommendations were on point and contained some good ideas.

“Their main recommendation was for us to sign up to the Visit England and Education UK websites, to increase our visibility to schools – both of which we had been considering, so it was pleasing to hear they were thinking along the same lines as us.”

The group consisted of Ryan Cox, Mohamed Sharif, Martha McKinell, Suela Sulejmani, Shannon Martin and Kenneth Liu.

Ryan said: “The project was a rewarding experience for both myself and my fellow team members, and gave us a good insight into the field of consultancy work. The team and I value the feedback provided by Aerial Extreme and will use this as we continue to develop professionally.”

Mohamed said: “Working with a team with many differences was challenging, however, the experience and skills I gained from this consultancy project made it incredibly worthwhile.”

Martha said: “I thoroughly enjoyed getting involved with this project as it gave me and the others the opportunity to help Aerial Extreme improve and grow.”