Daytrips by bus - a challenge for cities and tour operators

Over the last years the bus has been used for steady 10% day trips. Although the demographic changes will or already do influence the tourist bus market, it cannot be assumed that this will expand the bus market. Nevertheless experts believe that the bus share will grow by 2% in future years in Germany. Besides the holiday market, day trips are very common in the bus market. Seventy percent of the day trips are trips to cities. While the quality of hotels and other infrastructure for overnight guests has been addressed in many studies and initiatives, the day trip segment is much less researched. Only a few studies exist and in many cities day trip tourism is not very much liked although in some areas and cities 50% of the budget spent is from day trip tourists. To highlight and compare the different views of cities and bus operators a survey has been conducted. In a first step 84 potential cities of different size have been identified by experts due to the attractiveness for day trips and tour operator catalogues. A questionnaire has been sent out and 77% of the cities have been answered. The questions were looking at tourism demand, bus market share, relevant road and parking infrastructure for busses, information systems for buses and subsequent guiding systems for tourists, marketing activities and the perception of the cities. In parallel interviews have been conducted with the help of the German bus operator association BDO. The signing and information on the city approach were considered good. Problems are reported in the parking and terminal design, features at the terminal, capacity, the structure of parking fees and inner city issues. The communication between cities and bus operators and consequent cooperation was considered poor. Although there is no general concept how the infrastructure in cities for bus operators must be done, best practice concepts for different city sizes and examples of good singular measures exist in practice. To attract more day trip bus tourists and manage the bus traffic in a sustainable way, cities, operators and research should use existing best practice concepts and measures and adapt them accordingly. For the covering abstract see ITRD E145999

• Record URL:
  https://aetransport.org/past-etc-papers/conference-papers-pre-2012/conference-papers-2008
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/14749122
• Authors:
  • KLASSEN, N
  • MAKOWIAK, D
  • REISEN, D
  • GRIESCHEL, P
• Publication Date: 2008

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 12p
• Serial:
  • EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CONFERENCE 2008; PROCEEDINGS
  • ISSN: 1474-9122

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Buses; Carriers; Communications; Conferences; Consumer preferences; Demand; Driver information systems; Parking; Recreation; Tourism; Traffic signs; Urban areas
• Geographic Terms: Germany
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01163399
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Jul 22 2010 10:59AM