Travel
Why smart people take the coach
Are you looking for a travel experience that’s relaxing,
environmentally friendly and offers door-to-door luxury? Well consider catching
a coach, Paul Ovington says you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised.
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Nowadays
coach tourism comes in many shapes and sizes. Coaches don’t just do
day excursions, short breaks or longer holidays. Sports superstars, pop
music fans, theatre goers, conference delegates, cruise passengers –
all often choose to travel by coaches. Even our Royals use coaches when
there aren’t enough carriages and horses to go round!
Tours and holidays appeal to all tastes. Seaside holidays have not lost
their appeal but in the UK today you can choose anything from a trip to
the theatre in London or a day at Royal Ascot to longer tours taking in
the spectacular scenery of the Yorkshire Dales or Scottish Highlands. It’s
amazing to learn that more than 13 million people booked tickets at London
theatres in 2007, with a huge number coming by coach.
On the Continent arts and culture tours of the great Italian cities and
Lakes have been joined by holidays to Croatia and Slovenia, Portugal and
Scandinavia while long-haul tours take in China, New Zealand, South Africa
and North America. Closer to home Ireland continues to be one of our favourite
destinations.
So what do you get on a coach tour today? Perhaps most importantly, there’s
no driving stress – many tour operators will even arrange a taxi from
your home to the coach. When you join your tour, the driver takes over,
packing your suitcases safely, while you relax in your seat.
A coach is not a bus. A typical modern coach is double-glazed, air conditioned
and has reclining seats for extra comfort. It rides on air suspension, cosseting
its passengers. The driver has the benefits of a luxury car – traction
control, anti-lock brakes and even electronic stability control.
This means you can doze or admire the passing scenery, chat to new-found
friends or partners, enjoy a coffee and simply relax.
Fact File |
| The coach holiday market is predicted to increase by 23%
to be worth £2.93 billion by 2011
Passenger numbers will rise from 8.2 million in 2006 to 8.8 million
More than 36 million day trips per annum are by coach
UK holiday numbers will reach an estimated 6 million
Overseas coach customers will increase by half a million to
2.8 million
About 5 million people travel by coach on ferries and through the
Channel Tunnel each year. Another 650,000 passengers go on
a coach via ferry to Ireland
Spending on overseas coach holidays will increase by 45% at current
prices to reach £1.15 billion by 2011
There are just over 20,000 coaches in the United Kingdom
Coach operators bought more than 1,000 new coaches in 2007
– an investment of more than £225 million
New coaches cost as much as £250,000, with many costing even
more
The majority of new coaches come with air conditioning, double
glazed windows, on board toilets and drop down entertainment monitors.
Many have fewer seats to offer increased leg room and comfort, better
than on an aircraft
Safety: Coaches are seven times safer per mile than a car. They each
get a maintenance check every day, and a full examination every four
to six weeks
Coach tourism supports 80,000 jobs in the UK economy, 38,000 of them
directly in carrying
Coach tourism contributes almost £300 million to London’s
economy, carrying 2.8 million visitors
Sources: Mintel 2007 Leisure report, SMMT, Confederation of Passenger
Transport |
And when you reach your destination you will be dropped off at the door
of your specially chosen hotel and your luggage unloaded, meaning you can
go straight to the bar for a drink without even thinking about driving!
In short, the perfect ingredients for a perfect holiday.
But don’t just take our word for it. Each year many travel writers
embark on a coach tour organised by the Coach Tourism Council and it’s
interesting to read their observations on how a coach tour is often the
best way to travel.
Peter Sharples, writing in the Liverpool Post, went on a trip to Fjord
Norway and recalled: “This was my first coach holiday in 50 years.
The last time was back in pre-motorway days when, as a seven-year-old, I
was dragged along by my parents on a tour of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.
That experience didn't do a great deal for me and for years I swore never
to board a coach again. However, times have changed and the coach tour of
the 21st century is a completely different experience from what it once
was.
The clientele no longer has to be in bed by eight o'clock with their teeth
deposited in a bedside glass of water - well, not all of them anyway!
Also writing about the Fjords in the Huddersfield Examiner, Andrew Baldwin
commented: “It’s certainly hairy on some twisting roads, clinging
to the cliff sides. No way would we have dared to go in a car. We were glad
that we were letting someone else do the driving as we relaxed on a coach
while admiring the great views. Forget any bad memories you may have of
coaches of the past. Standards today are high. Sitting in armchair comfort
was a brilliant way to take in the wonders of Norway.”
Natalya Wilson, writing in the York Evening Press about a tour to Northern
Ireland, said: “Many people might associate coach trips with rickety
buses and the ‘blue rinse’ brigade, but that’s where they’d
be wrong. Travelling by coach can be an enjoyable way to sit back, relax
and take in the country you are visiting. The coach we travelled in was
sleek, plush and comfortable, with plenty of legroom, leather seats and
an on-board bathroom.”
So next time you are thinking of taking a touring holiday which starts
at your front door – to literally anywhere in the world – think
about booking a coach tour.
A greener way to travel
The coach tourism industry has often laid claim to have the best carbon
footprint but it is only now that it can truly claim that going by coach
is the greenest form of transport – excluding walking or cycling!
Research in 2007 by the famous Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
in Heidelberg for RDA, the International Coach Tourism Federation, showed
that travelling by coach is not only space-saving and resource-saving, but
that coaches also use less energy than other forms of transport, making
them the most eco-friendly holiday transport available for short-haul holidays.
It found that in terms of primary energy use (such as diesel, petrol and
electricity) coach travel uses:
- 6 times less energy than planes
- 6 times less energy than cars
- l 2 times less energy than trains
This research is similar to that carried out by the Edinburgh Centre for
Carbon Management for international coach operator Eurolines. It revealed
that a journey to Paris by coach produces 10.6 kilos of carbon per passenger
journey, compared to 52 kilos by air while a trip to Vienna was just 22
kilos by coach compared to 190.9 kilos by plane.
On average the research showed the carbon footprint for coach travel as
5.58 times lower than the cost of flying.