Travel companies find study tours are a winner. [Photo by Jia Zhutao and Nan Shan/For China Daily]

According to a blue book on global study tours released by New Oriental Education & Technology Group, expanding children's horizons was the major goal for parents, while improving language skills, experiencing independence and exploring cultural diversity were also popular.

Zhan Fuman, a 14-year-old from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, currently on a 15-day study tour in Australia with a price tag of 32,800 yuan ($4,820), went to the United States for her first overseas study tour last winter.

"She has been much more confident and independent since her first tour in the United States and learned to use knowledge from books and real life communications," says Zhu Wanxia, Zhan's mother.

Going on a study tour does not lead to going to a foreign university in the future, Zhu says, adding that they prefer their child go to a top Chinese university instead.

According to Chiu, only half of the students in their study tour programs went abroad for higher education.