Several escorted tour operators have begun quietly offering complimentary WiFi to passengers onboard motorcoaches in North America and Europe this year, an amenity they feel will not only become increasingly necessary to compete but that will also help facilitate social media promotion of their products.
For travelers, “being in touch is a priority,” said Steve Born, senior vice president of marketing at Globus. “Traveling in Europe and feeling like you’re going to be out of touch is an issue.”
At the behest of customers, Globus this year started offering free WiFi on its motorcoaches in most of Western Europe and North America, and in areas of Eastern Europe, depending on availability and connectivity.
Until recently, few, if any, escorted tour companies have offered WiFi on motorcoaches, and even fewer have attempted to make wireless Internet available abroad, where different telecommunication providers in each country and other infrastructure challenges have made it difficult.
But it appears that some of those kinks are starting to be ironed out. Globus has contracted with a motorcoach provider that installed and manages the hardware in the tour buses that allows for wireless Internet access (passengers receive a network name and password to log on).
Globus then pays for the data usage, so the more passengers who use the service, the more the company will pay out. And Born admitted that more passengers are using the service than the company originally had expected.
In a survey of 3,000 recent Globus passengers, 61% took advantage of the complimentary WiFi on their coach, and 87% of the travelers who had access to the free WiFi felt it was a useful tool. According to the survey, 55% of recent travelers used the WiFi to email and text friends while on vacation, and 35% used it to connect on their phones and tablets so that they could share photos and videos of their journey.
The competitive edge that Globus is hoping to get in return for its investment in WiFi is not merely against other competitors on land.
It includes cruise lines that are themselves working on connectivity issues. Like the cruise lines, Globus expects some customer-driven marketing in the form of travelers sharing their experiences, photos and videos with friends and family online and through social media outlets while they travel.
“It gives them that instant marketing ability,” Born said. “They’re equipped to … help spread the word about their experience.”
Several months into the trial and armed with positive feedback from passengers, parent company the Globus Family of Brands plans on expanding the program to its Cosmos tours in North America in 2014, but it will not be widespread among Cosmos’ Europe tours.
Other escorted tour operators have been testing the WiFi waters on their motorcoaches this year, as well. Trafalgar had routers installed on its motorcoaches in the U.S., Canada and Europe this year, and next year it will offer complimentary wireless connection in parts of South America.
Trafalgar President Paul Wiseman explained that the challenges of offering WiFi on motorcoaches in Europe are much greater than in the U.S. Different countries in Europe have different telecommunication providers and different bandwidths, Wiseman said.
“For that reason, there are still exclusions, a number of countries where you simply can’t do it,” he said.
Despite the logistical and technological hurdles, Wiseman said that enabling passengers to connect during downtime on the coach offers both a selling and marketing tool to agents and their clients.
“Quite frankly, it’s in our interest to have people sharing their experience,” he said. “People do want to connect and share their stories as their stories are unfolding.”
Insight Vacations, too, currently has 11 WiFi devices on trial on several tours in Europe. Starting Nov. 1 and continuing through to summer 2014, WiFi will be available on Insight coaches throughout Europe, from the U.K. to Finland to Romania.
Collette also offers some WiFi connectivity, depending on the coach provider and destination.
“We are actively looking for coach companies that have taken the initiative to offer these services,” said Bill Dziura, executive vice president of information technology at Collette.
Tauck, however, is holding out against the trend toward more and better WiFi on motorcoaches.
“Maybe we are running a little counter to the current, [but] we do not offer WiFi on our coaches, and that is a philosophical point and one that is being supported by our guests,” said Tauck Vice President Jeremy Palmer.
“We believe that being present in the trip is a good thing. We would rather them be part of the conversation and listening to the Tauck director than searching on their own online.”
He also noted that the variety of systems currently available in the more than 70 countries in which Tauck operates does not allow for consistent service and would be an unsatisfactory experience for travelers.
Tauck goes so far as to ask (but not require) children traveling on its Tauck Bridges family itineraries to put the tablet devices aside during motorcoach trips. Tauck does, however, offer free Internet access at all hotels on its itineraries that have Internet.
Follow Michelle Baran on Twitter @mbtravelweekly.