MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- The American Bus Association should stop tour
groups from undercutting motorcoach operators by getting net rates
direct from suppliers, motorcoach tour firms said at the ABA's
annual Marketplace convention here.
Leaders of nonprofit organizations, bank travel clubs and other
groups increasingly are bypassing motorcoach firms and are using
suppliers that offer them the same net rate they offer tour
operators, Steve Rzepecki of Legacy Tours of Distinction,
Allentown, Pa., said.
"They can then undercut the prices of tour operators, which need
to put a 10% to 15% markup on that [net] price to make a modest
profit," said Rzepecki, who was one of 2,100 delegates here. He
asked the ABA to educate suppliers about the benefits of dealing
exclusively with professional operators.
Marketplace chairman Stuart Weisberg, president of One If By
Land Tours of Flushing, N.Y., said he advocates supplier "tier
pricing," which would favor professional operators who are members
of ABA or the National Tour Association.
Using tier pricing, suppliers would "thank us as partners" who,
unlike group leaders, know how and when to give suppliers accurate
information about the number of guests confirmed for a trip and the
number of meals involved, he said.
Professional operators also understand cancellation policies,
and they sell to larger numbers of consumers, Weisberg said.
"Mrs. Jones from the church who gets a group together is not a
partner," he said. "I fight this problem [of group leaders going
direct to suppliers] every day."
Some of the most popular attractions, such as certain
restaurants and theme parks, offer him the prices they offer to the
public, he said.
Hotels are not above such negotiations either, he added. "And
there are theaters that deal direct with schools that are buying
just 40 tickets. They are competing with me for my own business,"
he said.
The problem extends to trade show planning, when show organizers
invite group leaders to meet directly with representatives of
hotels and attractions. Weisberg said show organizers should
encourage group leaders to use tour operators.
In other news at the Marketplace, state tourism officials from
Kansas and Minnesota told ABA leaders that detailed statistics
illustrating the power and breadth of motorcoach travel are needed
to justify appropriating state tourism funding to motorcoach
travel. They said government officials are asking whether
motorcoach travel will be spurned by the baby-boomer market and
eventually fade away.
ABA president Peter Pantuso said the association has approved a
statistical research study that would quantify "where we're going
and where we're coming from."
Other ABA officials said the organization has evolved from
representing fixed-route travel, such as Greyhound, and now
includes myriad charters and tours, but it has not defined the
industry, which they suspect is "huge."
ABA database
MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- The American Bus Association is compiling
information about its operator members in a database, Findit@ABA,
which debuted at the group's annual Marketplace convention
here.
The information will be available on the ABA's Web site by next
summer, officials said. The site can be found at www.buses.org.
The database includes contact information for operators; the
markets they serve; their top destinations; average length of
trips; types of hotels used, and their AAA ratings, if any.
Suppliers will be able to tap into the database to target
potential buyers, and tour operators can use it to explore business
partnerships with operators in other regions, the ABA said. --
C.C.