NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
The escorted tours sector is growing but can do more to promote its appeal, according to the sponsor of this Escorted Touring Special Edition. Juliet Dennis spoke to Richard Forde of Newmarket Holidays
From left: Newmarket Holidays escorted tours in Sri Lanka, India and Italy
The penny has dropped. Escorted touring is good value. Agents should be shouting this out at the top of their voices to any customer willing to listen.
That’s the view of Richard
Forde, head of trade sales at Newmarket Holidays, a specialist in the sector for 34 years. And it is one of the reasons the
sector is witnessing such strong demand, according to Forde, who said Newmarket had seen a particular upturn in recent years. “About five years ago it seemed people started to realise they could get more added value from an escorted tour than by putting it together themselves or through a dynamic package,” he said. Operators across the escorted
tours sector have been quick to capitalise on demand for hassle-free, guided holidays. They must be doing something
right: more than five million people take a coach tour in the UK each year, according to the Coach Tourism Association, and more than 1.5 million go on overseas coach trips. According to the CTA, the UK
‘Escorted touring must 6.5m
coach market is more buoyant this year, although overall the market is relatively static.
Younger clients
Newmarket is also starting to see younger customers book its tours – an indication perhaps that a perception that coach holidays are only for older people is fading. The change in customers is no
doubt aided by efforts of specialist operators in the sector to make their holidays more flexible, accessible and diverse. Whether it is offering flights
from regional airports, travelling in smaller groups, picking up customers at their front door or offering them the chance to stay with a local family, today’s escorted tours are increasingly breaking the traditional mould of a coach holiday. Forde said: “Some customers
still think escorted tours are bus trips. But there is much more to it.” The job of dispelling myths
about the sector partly rests with agents, said Forde. “Agents need to probe deeper into what people want and break
16
travelweekly.co.uk 15 June 2017
Number of Britons who take a coach tour each year
down the perception barriers. “We have a mix of tours, from
ones that move from hotel to hotel to ones that are single-centre, which are more suitable for people who don’t want to do a full tour.” Forde said the sector is evolving
to keep pace with the demands of the market, including the younger demographic. “Historically, it’s always been
an older market, but now you are getting people in their 40s and 50s on tours,” he added. To meet the needs of this market in particular, Newmarket will offer smaller escorted group tours from 2018 for the first time. These will be in India, Thailand, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka, with tour sizes of 16 to 24 people rather than 35 to 40.
Evolving market
Newmarket is an example of how operators have had to evolve to meet the changing needs of customers. In the 1980s and 1990s, Newmarket sold holidays through reader offers in newspapers but, as that market began to dwindle, it started to work with the trade. Ten years ago it began to engage
with agents, opening up its full portfolio to retailers from 2010. Since then the trade has been a key driver of growth. “We really put our foot on the gas
in 2010,” said Forde. “Our business through agents has trebled in the last five years because we have pushed it and because the sector has become very popular.” Newmarket has also grown its
on-the-road sales force from one a decade ago to three full-time and two part-time staff, plus a dedicated internal reservations team for the trade. It plans to have five full-time equivalents on the road in the near future. The operator prides itself on
its key selling points of selling through 29 regional airports and
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