January 20 2022
In this week’s blog post Phil Smith, CPT’s Coaching Manager, writes about what attendees can expect to hear on the topic of domestic tourism at the UK Bus & Coach Conference.
Last summer the coach industry saw a boom in domestic tourism, and with coach operators sharing news that they saw an increase in bookings, it showed a real appetite from the public to get travelling by coach.
We are already taking steps to ensure the benefits of coach travel are known. Last week we saw the launch of Get Back On Board, the coach industry’s first national marketing campaign that promotes the positive experiences of travelling by coach, and just this week an article appeared in the Independent celebrating coach travel and lauding coach for the environmentally friendly travel option that it is. The more noise we make about the benefits of coach travel, the more we will get heard.
With more people choosing to stay in the UK for their holidays we have an opportunity now to create new travel habits. But how can we lock in this change for the long term? At the conference next week I’ll be joined by industry experts including Rob Dickson from Visit Scotland and Heledd Owens from Visit Wales, discussing this and more in the ‘Growing Domestic Tourism’ session.
I really encourage all CPT members to sign up and attend the conference. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and join in the discussions that will challenge us to all think about how we can continue to grow coach tourism in the UK. The benefits of more people travelling by coach are huge; coaches are part of the solution to the problems of climate change, congestion and air pollution and coach tourism also supports local economies.
As we continue to exit the pandemic the travel industry is in a unique position to reset travel patterns, so come along to the conference and find out how domestic tourism can continue to thrive.
You can sign up to attend the UK Bus & Coach Conference on 25 & 26 January here.