The pie charts compare the proportions of international students booking English courses through four different methods in three countries in 2009 and 2010. Overall, the largest decline was observed in the percentage of students booking on arrival in Canada, whereas the reverse pattern was true for online booking in Australia. In addition, although the proportion of students using other unknown methods increased considerably, it remained the least common in Canada throughout the period.
In terms of Australia, the largest increase of 15% was seen in the share of students booking online, rising from 24% to 39%, while booking on arrival grew slightly from 26% to 30%. Meanwhile, the figure for pre-booking through agents represented the sharpest decline, falling from 27% to 11%; other unspecific methods dropped slightly from 23% in 2009 to 20% in 2010.
Regarding the USA, all methods experienced only minor changes, with booking on arrival levelling off at 24% in both years. Despite booking through agents rising marginally from 24% to 28%, other remaining categories – unspecific methods and booking online – declined slightly from 26% to 23% and 25%, respectively, over the period.
As for Canada, all booking methods witnessed significant trends. While the proportion of booking on arrival declined sharply from 45% to 26%, online booking represented a slight decrease from 27% to 25%. Furthermore, pre-booking through agents increased from 22% to 35%, whereas the proportion of using unknown methods tripled from 6% to 18% throughout the period.