Johnsons Coach and Bus Travel began touring again on 17 May, with two new Irizar i8 integrals. They are a statement of confidence in the coach tourism market
Since the roadmap out of lockdown announcement back in February, 17 May has been a date on many a coach tour operator’s mind.
With that comes the question of how to welcome the resumption of tours – fanfare, or cautious optimism? John Johnson of Johnsons Coach and Bus Travel of Henley-in-Arden was determined to make a statement the day touring could resume – and the delivery of two Irizar i8 integral coaches, a declaration of confidence in the coach touring product and one set to complete the ‘Luxury Traveller’ branch of the business, is an effective way to do just that.
A better quality product
Johnsons’ two new Irizars, dressed in an exciting new livery by Ray Stenning of Best Impressions, were demonstrated at an open event on 14-15 May before taking their first tours on the following Monday.
In a sense, they are completing something that Johnsons started around 15 years ago, then called the “touch of extra luxury” segment of the operator’s tour brochure. Touch of extra luxury began through a desire to give a superior product to customers booking tours. Hotels would be four star standard as a minimum, and passengers would receive a complimentary gift bag, free drinks, and other touches.
Those premium tours had hitherto been operated using the company’s 44-seat club class coaches, but in 2019 John managed to convince brother Peter to accept an idea that a step up in coaches was needed to complete the package. About six years ago, “touch of extra luxury” became the Luxury Traveller brand, and with the delivery of the new Irizars this year, the transformation is complete.
John says the step up in quality is mostly about leg room and comfort. “I think it’s the way forward for our sort of customers,” he adds, noting that Johnsons has always been able to sell a higher-priced holiday from its Warwickshire base, where local clientele has “certain expectations”.
Johnsons has always set itself as a quality provider, rather than a volume-based business, and higher prices reflect higher delivery in each package as opposed to bigger profits. Couriers accompany every tour, door-to-door pickup has been standard for some 20 years, and attraction entrance charges have always been included in the holiday price. “The holiday price has always been higher and we’ve always been able to attract a customer that wants a better product, it’s as simple as that,” adds John. “I’ve never wanted to contest the low-price holiday market. That’s never been of interest to me. The personal service that the courier and driver provide is outstanding.”
In a normal annual programme, Johnsons operates some 300 holidays a year, about 400 day trips, and 100 shorter ‘great breaks’. Brother Peter, who also handles the operator’s bus operation, is the expansionist of the family, while John focuses on quality delivery. And John acknowledges that the company would not be as large as it is today if it was just him running the show.
COVID compliant
The new coaches have been specified with 43 seats, offering additional leg room even over the club class offering. While not initially specified with COVID-19 restrictions in mind, the seating has consequently had a positive knock-on effect until restrictions are expected to ease on June 21. While seated, passengers on each row are 1m apart from each other, meaning social distancing guidance is met and more capacity can be achieved.
For John, personal space is a big factor in people’s perception of quality on a tour holiday, and the 43-seat specification allows consistent leg room from the first seat to the last, without causing any concern about fewer seats being available to sell. Breakeven point for each tour is at just over 75% capacity or 30 passengers, not far from pre-pandemic loadings. In a normal year, private hire work keeps the fleet busy and permits some tours to go with fewer than 30 passengers. “Our average loadings are about 36 or 37 on our coach tour programme, so it’s not very often I turn people away,” he explains. “That helped me to make the decision to specify 43 seats. It’s great when we can load a coach with 49 people, but ask any tour operator, it doesn’t happen that often.”
Upgrading to Luxury Traveller comes at a superficial premium of £5 per customer per day. That is costed into the holiday and ensures passengers understand that there is a difference in product and a difference in price. The vehicles will perform front line touring duties for a minimum of four years, five if possible, and are designed with second life in mind; both are fitted to be upseated to 57, avoiding the expense of completely stripping out the existing interior. There is no intention on John’s part to change the specification during their touring life – but the interior has been designed with hard use in mind. “We’ve tried to make them like a car inside, with lighter grey trim and dark seats. They have to be practical. At the end of the day, a coach has to go out and get dirty.”
Keeping coach attractive
There is no question in John’s mind that the two new Irizars enhance the Johnsons brand enormously. They are a statement of confidence in the coach touring product. They also have the potential to set the benchmark for future expectations. “I’m really pleased that I can, in a sense, reward my customers with this sort of quality,” he says. But what is the forecast for coach holidays post-pandemic?
Passengers have been expecting more luxury in recent years, and the standard of vehicles has of course risen. But while John admits it is not too difficult attracting the generation of passengers that travelled in the heyday of coaching – those who are 75 or older and remember the Bedford Duples of days gone by – holidaymakers acclimatised to the reality of cheap air travel and accessible cruising, or those who have long favoured travel by private car, may present more challenging markets to capture.
In that sense John believes delivery of this kind of quality will be essential to keeping the coach proposition attractive in the future. That is particularly true if the next generation of coach passengers, currently in their 60s, is to be drawn into coach tours. “To get that sort of age range to entertain a holiday by coach in the future, this is the sort of standard you have to provide,” John say.
Johnsons has seen good sales on its holidays this year. But it should be remembered too that domestic travel is currently seeing a boom following the impact of COVID-19. Theories that travellers might still be wary about cruise holidays and flights even after widespread air travel has been legalised are reasonable, and this year and into 2022 the coach industry could well benefit from that. But the cruising and cheap flight products are strong, and when confidence returns, they will return to attract passengers away from coaching. Whether this higher standard of coach product is enough to hold on to passengers remains to be seen.
There are also the post-Brexit challenges of the closed-door tour to consider, and the need for Interbus Waybills. Johnsons already knows that its Luxury Traveller programme will have to be expanded, and the two i8s will complete continental tours as early as this year if the numbers support it.
The biggest challenge, though, will be attracting people out of private cars. This is something John has already considered, and acknowledges what a huge challenge it is for the entire industry. Convenience and safety can play a big role in that. Coach operators will need a bit of creative thinking in their marketing departments to sell the areas where the coach product can be attractive.
Optimistic for the future
Investing in new luxury coaches to meet these demands has to result in a price premium somewhere. While the Luxury Traveller brand is itself a premium over the existing tour offering for Johnsons, John believes prices have to go up across the industry in order to both recoup the losses accrued from the pandemic and to maintain the level of quality modern passengers are expecting.
“We believe it’s reasonable to expect the customer to pay more going forward,” he says. “I think we will find that restaurants, cafes and accommodation will put their prices up too. We will see inflation post-pandemic, and most people would find that the rates they pay with [a coach operator] are similar to what a hotel would offer anyway. The only extra anyone has to find on our holidays is lunch.”
John forecasts that 2021 will see him operate around 60% of pre-pandemic tourism (when considered against the 2019 summer season). That average is made up of a year of two halves – 10% of pre-pandemic work up to July 1, and an optimistic forecast of 80-90% from that date when restrictions are set to ease.
As for 2022, John hopes to be back to approximately 100%, barring any further lockdown announcements. The delivery of the two coaches affirms his confidence in a good season.
Two factors support his optimism: One is that customers are already reporting that they have plenty of money to spend. The other is evidence for a pent-up demand for travel that has, after three national lockdowns, reached boiling point – and that affects people of all ages, whether they are aged 80 or 18.
