A ticket to ride

The silver pound is boosting the coach holiday market, as baby boomers take to the road. Jeremy Gates reports.
Coach holidayCoach holiday
Coach holiday

Coaching holidays around Britain and Europe are back in fashion as cost-conscious passengers seek out packages free of hidden extras.

More than seven million coaching holidays are booked each year, about five times the number of Brits who go cruising. The attractions of going abroad by coach are rising as the wobbly pound leaves travellers worried about what the final cost might be.

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Once they book a coaching holiday, the price can’t change: four-night half-board hotel breaks in Britain lead in below £200, while seven nights in Europe costs around £600 and luxury coach trips to the Arctic Circle or Russia can cost nearly £2,000.

John Hays, founder and chief executive of Hays Travel, the UK’s biggest independent travel agent, recently told a conference of fellow travel agents that there is a “Back to the Eighties” flavour in 2013 bookings: people want packages to keep their money safe, and dire British weather has convinced people they must escape soon.

People want to know what they are going to pay”, he says, “with no late surprises before they go.”

The Coach Tourism Council (CTC), which represents more than 150 UK coach tour operators, claims the 60-69 age bracket – the core market for coach tours – represents the biggest holiday spenders. People in that age group take the longest holidays (average 11.15 days) and the most expensive (£794 for travel and accommodation, plus £454 spending money). They’re also the most likely group to take several holidays a year.

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Dennis Wormwell, chief executive of Shearings, the UK’s largest coach operator with a 17 per cent slice of the market, says: “We carried one million passengers for the first time in 2012, and we’re shaping up to beat that in 2013.

“Two-thirds of the country’s personal wealth is held by over-50s, the age group taking more holidays than any other.

“There’s also great loyalty in this sector; if people like the product, they come back for more, and we fix incentives to encourage bookings.”

Shearings also owns around 50 
hotels in the UK in historic centres like Bath, Scarborough, Harrogate and Stratford-upon-Avon Avon which are largely filled by the coach operation.

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UK short breaks account for 
around 85 per cent of Shearings coach holidays.

Wormwell says: “Staycation breaks are partly in big demand because people also want to rediscover places important in their childhood.”

Although coach holidays are mainly for older folk, Wormwell says standard packages have had to be reshaped as the sector has grown.

“Forget bingo and ballroom dancing on holiday, baby boomers want walking, opera, big sporting events, great gardens and the bulb fields of Holland.

“Coaching holidays are also a hit with people travelling alone.

“There’s no hassle and coach travel is environmentally friendly.”

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