Currently, summer camps are very popular among young children of middle-class families in China and it is estimated that the annual income of the summer camp will exceed 20 to 30 billion yuan, with the market expected to reach 400 billion yuan in the next 5 to 10 years, China Newsweek reported on August 20.
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The background of summer camp
Summer camps are an excellent way for students to spend their summer holidays and help working parents find something for their children to do in western countries. However, such activities have recently been promoted as an important event in China, with summer camps being deemed a must-do for every child.
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Outdoor activities have gradually expanded from enterprises to primary and middle schools after quality-oriented education was rolled out across China since the year 2000. Until 2009, the summer camps popular among Chinese students were channeled into three categories, learning, physical and mental training and study-touring.
Promoting study tours
In Dec 2016, the Ministry of Education and 10 other ministries jointly released a statement promoting study tours for primary and secondary school students, and the industry quickly took off.
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Mrs Wang, a mother of three who has lived in the U.S. for over 10 years, said that many summer camp organizers from abroad have spoken out about such factors as anxious Chinese parents’ stronger spending power and the mentality of blindly following any after-school education such as camp education.
However, Wang explained that the facilities in domestic camps have now surpassed those in the U.S. Summer camp is just one of the options for American students deciding how to spend their summer holidays.
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According to 2013 American Camp Association data, about 14 million people in the United States, both parents and children, participate in summer camps every year , indicating that summer camp students accounted for less than one-third of all school-age children that year.
Reward excellent students
China started to reward excellent students by sending them on excursions to the then Soviet Union in the early 1950s, marking the start of Chinese summer camps. In the eyes of the older generation, summer camps are still only for a small number of top students, but today, it seems more like good business, available to all.
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China is the wild west of the teaching world, if you want to do business in China, the summer camp teacher is also a good choice!
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