ETOA Commercial Director and former CTA Chair Sean Taggart reveals how coach operators can look for new opportunities that will outlast the pandemic
Event organisers described a “back to business buzz” at the British Tourism and Travel Show (BTTS) on 22 and 23 September, which was an opportunity for coach operators to meet with 220 tourism suppliers, destination representatives and other exhibitors for insight into the upcoming season.
Positivity seen at that event is echoed by part-time Commercial Director at the European Tourism Association (ETOA), Toureasy founder and former Coach Tourism Association Chair Sean Taggart, who says that interest in travel, both domestic and overseas, is strong. But making the most of that demand and delivering on it has to be taken within the context of ongoing supply side challenges. Where challenges exist, though, Sean points out that there is always opportunity.
We discuss how operators can take advantage of the current landscape, and deal with some of the challenges facing the industry.
Challenges are on the supply side
It is well known now that demand for domestic coach holidays, tours and day trips is high, and CTA statistics have long shown that coach leisure travel has a loyal following eager to return.
Operators will be able to rely on that repeat custom for some time. “Coach holidays are a staple,” says Sean. “And they are the antithesis of the restrictions we’ve had over the last 18 months.”
The short-term issues to meeting that demand are on the supply side, and Sean believes that is not just within the current driver shortage crisis, but is also in a wider staffing crisis happening within the hospitality sector. That has knock-on effects to coaching, which relies on those services.
“We’re seeing hotels without staff, and that results in changed programmes and withdrawn services, particularly for those that put on extras like entertainment.
“Hotels are not confident that they have the staff, and we’re seeing real service issues. It’s not for lack of want – it’s for lack of people, and the risk of supply failure at the moment is not just affecting the coach industry.”
In his part-time role as Commercial Director for ETOA, Sean works with hundreds of suppliers across Europe and he says while the continent is also facing challenges, the UK situation seems to be particularly severe. A large part of solving the problem, he says, is to improve working conditions and drive up wages.
But the question of driving wages up comes during one of the largest income squeezes the population has seen, with energy and fuel prices up and a removal of the uplift in universal credit. Should customers be expected to pay more?
“It’s tough to put prices up, but operators have to survive,” Sean answers. “As operators enter their fifth winter, they may have no choice if they want to operate the tours to a quality level that our customers demand.”
Recognising that the industry is not operating in isolation will help businesses recognise the necessity of those price increases. “Customers are being price conditioned,” Sean says. “Prices are going up everywhere – in the supermarket, with energy prices, and general inflation. There are opportunities to put prices up across the board. But I’m not for a moment saying that it’s easy, straightforward or without risk.”
One operator that has long called for that uplift in price to consumers is John Johnson, Director of Johnsons Coach and Bus Travel in Henley-in-Arden. Having had drivers retire through the pandemic and now faced with shortages at a time that quotes are needed for work in 2022, he describes the situation as a “perfect storm” and also partly blames the sector for having not pushed driver wages up sooner.
“You could argue it’s our own fault,” he says, “because for years I don’t think we’ve been paying enough to our full-time coach drivers. That’s my personal opinion. The nature of employment is such that their rates of pay need to be better than they were pre-pandemic, and we have to start charging our customers more if we want to pay our drivers more.”
“It’s tough to put prices
up, but operators have to
survive… they may have no
choice if they want to operate
the tours to a quality level
that our customers demand”
Under the current climate, John says operators should worry less about passing price increases onto customers – it is happening across sectors. “There is understanding out there from consumers and customers that price increases are necessary.”
But Sean is not sure on how many easy solutions there are, or if price increases will be the panacea the industry needs. “COVID-19 has forced people in hospitality to look into other careers, so it’s also a question of attracting people back into the sector – wages aren’t high, and it’s physical shift work with a lot of competition.
“The government took action to bring a limited number of HGV drivers in from the EU to support that sector. The hospitality sector also relies heavily on EU migrant workers – but I can’t see the government doing the same on a big scale.”
Indeed, Johnsons acknowledges that driving wages up still does not offer a real answer to the question of attracting new drivers to address the current labour shortage, which is also an issue the industry is wrestling with (see p.40-42).
“We’ve got the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” John says, referring to the proliferation of quotes and the constant risk brought by the driver shortage. “And the answer isn’t to just poach drivers off other operators, because that doesn’t help anybody. The answer is to attract new people to the industry who want to enjoy a career in coach driving and all the good things about coach driving. That’s all we’ve got to do – attract more people to the industry, not take someone else’s by putting the rates up continuously.”
The result of these challenges is that there is no quick fix – Sean believes the UK economy will take some time to adjust, and that will affect operator programmes and the wider tourism sector for some time.
Making the most of change
In a positive twist, crisis after crisis is teaching operators to stay agile and flexible, and with much more out of the sector’s control, looking for opportunities where they can be found is vital.
One such opportunity is in the shift to online retail that has been seen during the pandemic. The Office for National Statistics showed in a 2020 survey that the COVID-19 pandemic had a “profound effect” on the retail sector, with in-store sales 10% down and online sales still up by 50% by September 2020 compared to the start of the year. That shift into online spending may finally be taking hold among coach tour passengers, and that presents a new way to draw in business.
“Our industry demographic has not necessarily been the most ardent adopters of online purchasing, but the pandemic affected that because everyone had to go online for everything,” Sean explains.
“The trend was that the older demographic – if you look at that core market – was adopting internet purchasing more and more, but were lagging behind other sectors. The pandemic has boosted their willingness to engage online and that creates marketing and channel opportunities for coach tour operators that will outlast the pandemic.”
Working together
The coach tourism industry comes down to relationships. Now it is time to re-establish those relationships.
Toureasy, which Sean founded in 2021 to operate coach holidays, day trips and tours, is finding that, in spite of the staffing crisis, conversations with major hotel chains reveal a new opportunity where business travel has been lost.
“Leisure is now a much more important part of their business mix for the foreseeable future,” he reveals. “That creates big opportunities for the industry to collaborate with hotels and other suppliers that, maybe before the pandemic, might not have been as interested in creating partnerships.”
Operators that run coaches throughout the year should become an attractive proposition for suppliers of all kinds. Drawing passengers in all year will be reliable business that hotels cannot afford to waste. That, according to Sean, was demonstrated through conversations had at BTTS, and the response based on Toureasy’s carbon neutral ambition also shows a deep desire to work together to drive a green agenda. Those types of shared outlooks are an avenue for operator-supplier symbiosis.
More attractive than ever?
Sean ends on a positive note for the sector, and one that is partly driven by COVID-19: “Coach holidays should be more attractive than ever before, because people are more conscious of their personal safety and health, and nothing looks after you quite as much as a coach holiday does.”
The nature of coach holidays appeals to an increasing sense of insecurity around safety and wellbeing, which Sean says COVID-19 has highlighted among vulnerable generations. Coach travel is the “greenest option after walking and cycling” to boot, playing in to a heightened awareness of the climate crisis, and offers a solution to the lack of social contact seen over the last 18 months. “These are all products of the pandemic that our industry should be jumping on and will create opportunities for us if we speak about it in the right way.”
But the awkward answer to making that message heard is to spend time and money. There’s also an element of luck. Operators therefore need to get the expertise in, if it is not already in house, to find the answer. “It is about differentiating,” Sean adds. “It’s about being clear on what you stand for and what makes you different to anybody else.”
