ruf
| Facts & Figures | |
|---|---|
| Managing Partners |
Thomas Korbus Burkhard Schmidt-Schönefeldt |
| Registered Offices | Bielefeld |
| Year Formed | 1981 |
| Office Employees | more than 110 |
| Travel Guides Travel Assistants |
About 2,000 trained travel guides aged between 21 and 35 years |
| Destinations | Italy, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Spain (Costa Brava, Mallorca and Ibiza), USA, Australia |
| Accommodation | 130 hotels, club resorts und camps in 67 destinations |
| Number of Guests | 80,000 annually |
| Website | www.ruf.de |
- table of contents
- Awards & Quality
- Travel Guide training at the ruf academy
- Publications
- Association work
- Tourist industry partners
- Contact us
ruf, a trademark of Trend Touristik GmbH, is a youth travel specialist and Europe’s most successful travel operator for accompanied holidays for children, young people and young adults. Our specialised travel offers are all-in tours consisting of adventure, sports, as well as event and cultural activities and are assisted by professional carers. The company was formed by Thomas Korbus (today the company's managing partner,) in Bielefeld in 1981, together with leisure education students. Every year, over 80,000 young people aged between 8 and 23 travel with ruf. They head for 67 destinations across Europe, the USA and Australia. In these countries, ruf customers have the use of over 130 different clubs, camps and hotels. At the locations, we offer a wide range of educationally sound activities including excursions, sports and cultural activities – all organised by trained ruf tour guides for our young guests. The programme is split into two topic areas – traditional holidays for young people with relaxation, sports and sun and specialist holidays which equip our customers with particular skills, e.g. foreign languages, sports, as well as tours which convey knowledge in an applied way. At the destinations, our young customers are accompanied by around 2,000 German-speaking youth travel guides. The educationally designed tours are subdivided into several different age groups with varying levels of care. The tours and accompanying activities in the programmes we offer are designed to suit various age-groups. At the company headquarters in Bielefeld, Westphalia, our tours and events are organised by more than 110 employees.
As a result of its innovative and educationally valuable concepts, ruf reisen won the German Tourism prize in 2010. ruf Kinderreisen is regularly awarded the “OK for Kids” certificate by the Deutsche Kinderschutzbund (German Child Welfare Association) and TÜV Nord.
Young Peoples' Tours for young people
Accompanied summer tours for young people
Half our tours are sold by some 3,000 travel agencies and directly via the internet. With some 50,000 registered active users, the travel community at www.ruf.de is the largest young peoples' travel portal of its kind in Germany and is considered to be a trendsetter throughout Europe.
For several years, ruf has been working with well-known partners from a variety of industries to develop and market new travel formats. Examples of these are Gruner & Jahr (ELTERNfamily, GEOLINO), VIVA / MTV, Detlev D! Soost, RTL Disney Television (SuperRTL), O´Neal, viacom, Yamaha and numerous sports clubs.
ruf offers the following types of tours:
- Kinderreisen – Children’s tours – for children aged from 8 years
- Jugendreisen – Young people’s tours – Accompanied summer and winter excursions for young people aged from 13 years
- ruf NEXT – accompanied summer and winter excursions for young adults aged from 18 to 23 years
- Abireisen – end-of-school trips for young people to celebrate passing the German university matriculation examination
- Gruppenreisen – Group excursions – for clubs and associations – ruf provides an additional travel assistant
- Klassenfahrten - School trips – ruf organises the school trip together with the teachers and provides a travel assistant
- Winterreisen – Winter excursions – accompanied ski tours for young people aged from 12 or 16 and young adults aged from 18 years.
Awards & Quality
In 2010, ruf won the German Tourism Prize with its "Rügen Festival Camp” programme, specially developed for teenagers. The same year, the Deutscher Kinderschutzbund (German Child Welfare Association) and the TÜV Nord awarded ruf's Kids & Teens programme with its "OK for Kids" certificate. ruf Jugendreisen has also won other quality awards from the Bundesforum Kinder und Jugendreisen e.V. (German Childrens' and Young Peoples' Forum) and Reisenetz e.V. – Fachverband betreuter Jugendreisen (The Travel Network – Accompanied Young Peoples' Tours Industry Association).
Youth Travel Guide training at the ruf academy
Travel Guide Training at the ruf academy
The ruf academy is not simply an initial training and advanced training academy for young peoples’ tours, but for the last 30 years has also embodied the scientific and educational know-how behind ruf’s travel offers. The ruf academy develops concepts for special training in tourism for employees at the various holiday destinations.
Graduates in education and social sciences are responsible for training, which is continually developed together with carers, lawyers and teachers every year. These people continue to develop the course content and methods used in the seminars. All initial and advanced training for childrens' and young peoples' tour guides at the ruf academy is considered to be unique and a trendsetter throughout Europe. Since 2010, the ruf academy has been awarded the “ISO 9001:2008” certificate every year. This certificate requires the introduction and application of a quality management system
Publications
ruf has been engaged in secondary social science research on the subject of young peoples' tours for over 20 years. Since then, six books in the series "Bielefelder Jugendreiseschriften (Bielefeld Young Peoples' Travel Publications) have been published and a seventh book is currently being planned. The books are considered basic literature for the entire young peoples' travel industry. For further information and details on how to order please contact the Institut für Freizeitwissenschaft und Kulturarbeit e.V. (IFKA).
Association Work
ruf is active in the following German and international associations:
- DRV Deutscher Reiseverband e. V.
- BundesForum Kinder- und Jugendreisen e. V.
- World Youth Student & Educational Travel
- RDA Internationaler Bustouristik Verband e. V.
- IATA International Air Transport Association
- Reisenetz e.V. Fachverband betreuter Jugendreisen
Tourist Industry Partners
ruf works with the following international partners:
- AIR BERLIN, Germany
- LUFTHANSA, Germany
- smilo destinationsmanagement, Spain, Italy
- SERHS, Spain
- hotelbeds
- SMS, Malta
- New World Travel, USA
- Young Austria, Austria
- Eurotours, Austria
- MOBY Lines, Italy
- AIR MALTA, Malta
Contact Us
We are constantly looking for international business contacts, tourist industry partners, cooperative sales and purchasing programmes and investors. We look forward to hearing from you.
Contact us at Kooperationsmarketing@ruf.de.
