22/07/10

Report shows coach tourism is best in class for foreign visitors

Release to: Coach Journals
Date: July 2010
Title: Report shows coach tourism is best in class for foreign visitors

The Coach Tourism & Transport Council (CTTC) has welcomed the publication of a report by the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC) today that showed visitors to Ireland were most ‘price satisfied’ by coach tours.
The report showed that when visitors were asked how satisfied they were with the price of their various activities, 81% reported they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the price of their coach tour. This was a higher level of price satisfaction than that recorded in other categories such as hotels, hostels, golf, car hire, cycling and equestrian.
In addition, just 2% of those surveyed indicated that they were dissatisfied with the price of their coach tour, which was by far the lowest level of dissatisfaction recorded.
The figures were contained in A Changed World for Irish Tourism – facing up to the challenges of recovery, which was prepared in association with ITIC by the consultants Tourism & Transport Consult International. They used data from Fáilte Ireland’s most recent Visitor Attitude Survey, released in April this year.
The Visitor Attitude Survey also showed that when visitors were asked about the quality of transport while in Ireland, coach tours scored the highest with 94% of respondents with “satisfied” or “very satisfied”. Day coach tours scored the second highest satisfaction level (87%), with intercity bus services at 84%, marginally ahead of intercity train services at 83%, and internal flights at 78%.
Visitors were also most satisfied with the level of customer service on coach tours (94%) followed by day coach tours at 89%. Intercity bus services came in fourth place with 79% satisfaction, behind taxis (84%) and ahead of intercity rail (78%) and internal flights (74%). 
“The figures show that coach tourism offers visitors the best price, best quality and best customer service of any activity in Ireland,” says Gerry Mullins, Chief Executive of the CTTC. “This is what the visitors are saying, not just us.”

“Today’s report calls for action to redress the perception of Ireland as a high priced destination, and we’re happy to note the coach and bus companies are leading the way,” says Mullins. “We call on Tourism Ireland to intensify its efforts to promote coach tourism. If this is what visitors enjoy most, then we should play to our strengths.”