ACIS

What ACIS does

ACIS (American Council for International Studies, Inc.) is a Boston-headquartered educational travel company founded in 1978 by Peter Jones. It operates as the educational travel division of the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS), a privately held organization established in 1964 that has served more than 1.5 million students cumulatively. ACIS curates and delivers international and domestic educational tours for K-12 student groups—primarily middle and high school—accompanied by teachers who serve as group leaders. Tour packages are bundled offerings that include round-trip flights, centrally located hotels, meals at local restaurants, ground transportation, guided activities, and 24/7 on-ground support from dedicated Tour Managers, with pre-departure customization handled by assigned Program Consultants.

The company distributes tours through a direct sales model (webapp.acis.com, 800-888-ACIS phone line, inside sales Mon-Fri 10am-6pm EST, live chat) supplemented by a teacher-as-channel-partner motion in which educators recruit and organize student cohorts from their schools. Supporting technology includes a web-based booking and registration platform, the ACIS Travel App (iOS/Android) that delivers real-time risk alerts and personalized notifications using location data, the TripSite itinerary platform, a Group Leader Academy training program, and a Personal Fundraising Platform accessible via My Account. The product portfolio spans specialized themed tours (Holocaust Remembrance, World War II In Depth, language immersion, Glory of the Habsburgs, Highlights of South Korea, Discover Taiwan) plus ancillary revenue streams including tiered Protection Plans ($360 Ultimate / $495 Ultimate-Plus), optional extensions (e.g., $550 Munich extension), and scholarship programs.

ACIS generates revenue primarily through one-time tour package purchases, with ancillary transaction-fee revenue from optional add-ons and protection plans. Pricing is quote-based rather than publicly disclosed. The company maintains wholly-owned subsidiaries including ACIS America (domestic travel), Travel & Company, and Encore Tours (performing arts-focused), and operates owned offices in Boston, Chicago, Sacramento, London, and Paris with affiliated offices in Madrid and Rome, supporting tour delivery across 35+ countries. The customer base is highly fragmented across K-12 schools, individual teachers, students, and parents, with marketing driven through content (blog, brochures, lesson plans), email, social media, referrals, and education-conference participation. ACIS holds GDPR and CCPA compliance certifications and operates registered trademarks including ACIS®, Travel & Company®, Encore ToursSM, and Travel Changes Lives®.

Name

ACIS

Legal name

American Council for International Studies, Inc.

Website

https://acis.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1978

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

ACIS Educational Tours, founded in 1978 in Boston and operating as a division of AIFS, curates bundled international educational travel experiences for K-12 students and their teachers across 35+ countries, delivering flights, hotels, meals, tour managers, and 24/7 on-ground support via direct sales and teacher-led group channels.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Travel Services

NAICS

Tour Operators (56152), Tour Operators (561520)

SIC

Transportation Services (4700), Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Student & Youth Educational Tours (THAKAGAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

School Group & Curriculum-Led Trips (THAKAGAB), Educational & Student Multi-Day Tour Operators (THAKADAJ), Group & Small-Group Custom Itinerary Planning (THAKAOAF)

Keywords

• Educational travel tours
• Student group travel
• Teacher-led tours
• School trip packages
• International study tours

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations

Revenue model

1. Educational Tour Programs: Core revenue from educational travel programs for student groups, including international tours to Europe, Asia, and other destinations. Tour packages include round-trip flights, accommodations, transportation, meals, tour managers, and activities.
2. Travel Protection Plans: Optional protection plans offered to travelers including Ultimate-Plus Protection Plan ($495) and Ultimate Protection Plan ($360) providing health coverage, program interruption, baggage delay/loss, and travel delay protection.
3. Optional Extensions and Extras: Additional revenue from optional tour extensions (e.g., 2-night Munich extension at $550), extra nights, and optional activities available for purchase.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

ACIS designs and operates educational group travel tours for middle school and high school students, providing fully planned itineraries that include transportation, accommodations, meals, guided sightseeing, and curriculum-aligned educational content across more than 35 countries. Tours are organized through teacher trip leaders who recruit student participants from their schools, with ACIS handling the end-to-end logistics of each trip.

Product overview

ACIS (American Council for International Studies) operates as a unified educational travel platform offering comprehensive services for student group travel. The core product is ACIS Educational Tours, which provides customizable educational travel experiences to destinations worldwide including Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The portfolio includes specialized tour products such as Holocaust Remembrance, Glory of the Habsburgs, World War II In Depth, Highlights of South Korea, Catholic Highlights in Spain, and Discover Taiwan. Supporting offerings include TripSite (planning resources), the ACIS Travel App (mobile application with real-time alerts), Protection Plans (Basic, Ultimate, Ultimate-Plus), and the World Traveler Rewards loyalty program. The company also maintains subsidiary brands: Encore Tours (performing arts travel) and Travel & Company. Additional services include scholarship programs, personal fundraising platforms, and the Group Leader Academy training resource.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Encore Performance Tours: Performance-focused educational tours for music and performing arts groups
• ACIS America
• Travel & Company

Products and services

• Educational Tours
• TripSite
• ACIS Travel App
• Protection Plans
• Encore Tours
• Travel & Company Subsidiary of ACIS providing custom and bespoke group travel services tailored to specific school or organizational travel requirements beyond standard catalog tours.

Quantifiable outcome

• Travel changes lives - students return with expanded perspectives, cultural understanding, and global citizenship development
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• AIFS (American Institute for Foreign Study)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1964ACIS is the educational travel division of AIFS. Since 1964, AIFS has been the leading provider of cultural exchange and educational opportunities for more than 1.5 million students. AIFS programs include Academic Year in America, AIFS Study Abroad, Au Pair in America, Cultural Insurance Services International (CISI), Richmond University, and Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG).

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• EF Educational Tours: The educational travel division of EF Education First, EF Educational Tours is the most direct competitor to ACIS, offering curriculum-linked international tours for middle and high school students with similar teacher-led group dynamics.
• WorldStrides: One of the largest U.S. student travel providers, WorldStrides offers K-12 educational tours across performance, sports, history, and STEM — overlapping directly with ACIS's core product set and teacher-network GTM.
• Explorica: Explorica specializes in educational group travel for schools, offering teacher-organized international tours with itinerary customization and curriculum alignment that closely mirrors ACIS's value proposition.
• Travel For Teens: Travel For Teens organizes small-group summer programs for high school students, sharing the youth international travel focus though skewing older and more leisure-led than ACIS's curriculum-led approach.
• Bold Earth Teen Adventures: Bold Earth runs adventure-focused teen summer trips in multiple countries, targeting a similar middle/high school demographic and competing for the same family-discretionary travel dollars.

Emerging players

• Walking Tree Travel: Walking Tree Travel is a smaller, mission-driven student travel operator offering international service-learning and cultural trips for schools — directly comparable in target customer and curriculum-aligned framing.

Others

• Encore Tours (sister brand — competitor framing): ACIS's own performing-arts tour subsidiary is comparable as a competitor in the performance tour niche (band, choir, orchestra) but is part of the ACIS/AIFS portfolio rather than an external peer.

Broad incumbents

• Road Scholar: Road Scholar is the largest U.S. educational travel provider for adults (not-for-profit), sharing ACIS's learning-first positioning but serving an entirely different demographic — useful as a category benchmark.
• G Adventures: G Adventures is a global small-group tour operator with strong brand recognition among younger travelers; comparable in multi-country guided tour operations though not in K-12 educational curation.
• Contiki: Contiki is an established 18-35 tour operator offering multi-country guided itineraries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas — relevant as a benchmark for group travel logistics and brand-driven demand.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@acistours
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/acis-educational-tours
• Instagraminstagram.com/acistours
• Xx.com/acistours
• Facebookfacebook.com/acistours

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ACIS