No clear road to overseas coach tourism restart in 2021

Despite ongoing success with the vaccination rollout and boosters in August, testing requirements have for some led to a false dawn for overseas coach tourism in 2021

Hopes that the vaccine rollout would mean an easy restart to overseas coach tourism in 2021 may have been misplaced, routeone has learnt.

In conversations with coach tour operators whose income relies heavily on such work, ongoing complications with vaccinations, testing, and administration are proving a deterrent to a smooth restart for visits to the continent.

That has resulted in one operator, which took advantage of a window in 2020 to run tours to Europe, describing 2021 as a worse situation for coach tourism than 2020, before the vaccine rollout. Another has described how enthusiasm is fading for 2021.

Overseas coach tourism ‘Situation worse in 2021’

In a normal year around 60% of Parrys International’s tour programme
consists of European travel. The loss of that income has been
“catastrophic” according to Managing Director Dave Parry.

Last year, out a programme of over 100 tours, the company ran only two Irish tours and four European tours in September to Kraków, Poland; Riva Del Garda and Diana Marina in Italy; and one departure to Bavaria. While those tours were able to pay for themselves, overall it resulted in a £2m loss, with turnover down £4m per year. The most passengers carried on any of those tours was 32 to Diana Marina. Kraków and Bavaria saw only 18 passengers on board. “We were lucky to break even on that, but it was important that we showed we could travel without problems, and we didn’t have problems,” he adds.

Parry’s then temporarily closed from the end of October 2020 due to regional restrictions, restarting travel in late May on day excursions and tours in June. So far this year, the company has not run a single European tour.

“The problem is that we have no way of knowing when the future will reopen for us,” Dave says. “The biggest problem for everyone is to ask when can we travel to Europe once more – and that’s the big question we don’t know.”

While travel restrictions were eased, the picture is complicated by testing requirements. Parry’s had planned to run tours to the continent in 2021, and continues to plan through to 2023. But the lack of travel into Europe from an operator perspective means overseas tourism remains something of a great unknown. “We’re quite confident we have everything covered,” Dave says. “But until the government removes the requirement to test before and after returning to England, people are not looking to travel overseas in volume by coach.”

Ireland has been an exception, with the green light given in August. Fully vaccinated passengers from the UK now require only a locator form and proof of identification – no testing or quarantine is necessary. Dave hopes this system can soon be extended to continental Europe. On returning to the UK from travel abroad, passengers must provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result taken three days before departure. Non-compliance may result in fines on arrival. According to the government, travellers will then be “subject to quarantine measures in place in the UK upon entry”.

For Dave, those added requirements open up risk that is putting passengers off travel. “We appreciate that a double vaccination is required, but when we get into testing and pre-testing, the worry of people having to isolate in a different country means people are not going to risk it,” he says. “Unless the government relaxes those restrictions, we can’t see ourselves going into Europe.”

There had been a lot of hope that some tours would depart this year, particularly when measured against the relative ease with which some tours got away in September 2020. “No-one had been vaccinated then,” Dave points out. “Most of our passengers have certainly been double vaccinated, and you would think that would give us the green light to go ahead. But we’re in a worse position now than we were last year. It seems very strange. We still have no financial help other than the furlough scheme which comes to an end soon, and no grants from government. We will have to fend for ourselves – and still don’t have the opportunity to do business.”

And while domestic tourism has seen a resurgence, Dave warns that in some areas the domestic holiday market is creaking under the weight of those wider travel restrictions. “Domestic travel is full,” he claims. “Hotels are struggling with staff shortages. We’re talking with others across the industry and we’re finding that hotels haven’t recovered enough from closures to deal with the high volume of people now looking to book.”

Still ‘too early to predict’ at Leger Shearings

Chris Plummer, Operations Director at Leger Shearings Group, offers a further indication of the kind of impact that those testing requirements and the additional “inconvenience” has had on demand for tours, particularly when contrasted with appetite for Irish tours.

Leger Shearings has highlighted a number of European tours it could feasibly operate in October based upon current passenger numbers, volume of departures and departure dates, and where those countries are in terms of regulations and restrictions. The
group has not operated a single European tour since March 2020.

There remain a number of concerns across Europe, particularly in Italy and Belgium, where the UK is considered high risk and quarantine requirements are in place even for fully vaccinated travellers (From 31 August, travellers from the UK to Italy can avoid quarantine with proof of vaccination and a negative test taken 48 hours before entering Italy). That is a huge barrier for any potential coach tourism. “It’s not going to work for our clients,” Chris says. “We have only selected tours that do not require additional testing or quarantine for entry into the relevant country.”

Testing that is required to return to the UK remains an inconvenience and cost. Chris warns of the timing issue and the impact on itineraries, as to when it is best suited to do any testing, particularly with rapid antigen tests – bearing in mind the rapid antigen tests must be taken three days before return to the UK, and some of Leger’s tours are of four and five day duration. There is also a cost impact to the client, which amounts to around £90 per person, based upon a rapid antigen test and a polymerase chain reaction test on return to the UK.

These are all things Leger Shearings discusses with its clients. “Having highlighted a number of tours we could operate into France in late October, our approach is to contact our clients and discuss the options and ask if they still want to travel on the tour or move their booking to next year. We then explain what is involved in terms of testing in order to return to the UK. It is our intention to work with a testing partner, to ensure the client feels supported throughout the process and of course this helps to remove a lot of the hassle. Our priority will always be the safety of our clients.

“However, once you start talking to clients about testing and the impact in terms of cost and inconvenience – and remember that COVID-19 is still out there and still a huge concern to people, particularly as we move towards winter – you start to see the numbers fall off the tour, reducing the load factor and of course the feasibility of operating.”

Chris now believes pent up interest in European travel is fading for 2021, but is confident it is due a return in 2022 when testing requirements are hopefully gone. “But,” he adds, “we still don’t know that for sure.”

What has been shown is that the appetite for coach tourism, when testing is not required, has been good. When Ireland reopened, Leger Shearings Group increased capacity by adding around 25 new departures onto its Ireland programme for September and October this year, and that has resulted in a huge increase in bookings. The Group will carry around 1,600 passengers to Ireland between August and October, numbers that Chris says the Group certainly did not expect a few months ago. “That’s been based on the fact there isn’t any testing. It’s straightforward for the client. We had our first six tours come back in late August with excellent reports.”

Lack of overseas transit exemption ‘knocked confidence’

Andy Warrender, Operations Manager at RHA Coaches, says much of the current situation can be attributed to a lack of quarantine travel exemption impacting France. Such an exemption had been present in 2020 but was not reinstated in 2021, which Andy suggests had knocked the confidence of operators looking to travel overseas.

“At that point there was a transit exemption allowed for coaches so that they could come through largely unhindered and didn’t have the penalty of quarantine for those onboard. That unfortunately hasn’t so far been renewed or wasn’t renewed under the arrangement that existed until early August.”

Looking forward, Christmas markets are a priority on many operators’ calendars. But a degree of apprehension remains about what will happen in the future, and this has prompted RHA into dialogue with the Department for Transport (DfT) regarding any future transit exemptions.

“The situation as it existed has now lapsed, but there’s obviously a fear that that could come back into play, if for instance the same restrictions were applied to France in the beginning of November,” warns Andy. “It would effectively preclude all Christmas markets; even though a very small proportion of traffic is heading into France, a lot will be going through France to Belgium, Holland, Germany and Austria.

“To that end, if we could get some reassurance from DfT that that exemption could be put in place, if it were ever needed, it would certainly put a boost in confidence to those operators which are planning Christmas market programs.”

Andy adds that he has spoken with at least four operators, all of which have, or are in process of launching Christmas market programs – but which have a degree of apprehension that they could end up with nothing if travel restrictions in France were applied.

FIRST TOURS INTO EUROPE

One of the first operators to head overseas with a group of 18 was Seawards of Harrogate between 21-27 August.

The operator was contacted by a tour provider on 4 August, informing it that a European tour was going ahead. Passengers bought their own tests, with discount codes provided by the tour organiser. According to Seawards owner Ian Seaward, passengers were accepting of the additional testing requirements. “They knew they had to do it,” he says. “Some were concerned about the timescales. But the price of the testing was not a worry.”

Seawards says it did not come across any other difficulties while in Europe. COVID-19 passes were required for any venues, which can be shown electronically or with a paper copy. The check-in procedure for Eurotunnel has also changed slightly; passports must be shown at passport booths, rather than the terminal building. Passengers must then sign a COVID-19 declaration and show proof of vaccination for the French authorities. Other delays came on return to the UK with authorities checking paperwork. “But from there, it’s plain sailing,” adds Ian.