Published: 22 October 2009.

Increasing numbers of Schoolies are shunning toolies and avoiding boozy Gold Coast celebrations in favour of adventure holidays to mark the end of their high school exams.
 
According to North Coast Schoolies director, Simon Luke, Bookings for activity-based holidays such as skydiving, mountain biking, scuba-diving, snorkelling, surfing and kayaking are increasing each year as many young school leavers seek out an alternative to a week of hard-core partying in November.

”It just seems to be a growing trend that's spreading by word of mouth,” he said. ”We'll probably sell out in February or March for 2010.”

Mr Luke says: ”The whole toolie aspect was a big concern for us and for parents…You're not just lost in the crowd here, it's a bit more boutique so you get to know people and form friendships – you don't leave at the end of the week thinking ‘there was 20,000 kids and who did I party with?’”

The majority of bookings so far are from New South Wales (Primarily Sydney and Newcastle) but there has also been an increasing number coming from Queensland.

Bernard Salt is a KPMG demographer and Tourism Forecasting Committee chairman. He said today's Generation Y teenagers had a far greater awareness of health and fitness.

”That doesn't mean that a group of them don't indulge in drugs and alcohol but I would like to think it's a highly visible minority,” he said.  He also believed the global financial crisis is responsible, in part, for creating a more moral consumer. Claiming that ”Schoolies is a reflection of middle class prosperity…During the boom tourism operators sold everything as indulgence, but now there's more of a morality to consumption and adventure or activity tourism fits the bill.”

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