CARNELES KNOWLEDGE
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OF UP-MARKET TOUR A
Embattled luxury coach tour operator Trevor Carnell tells Noel Millier about the problems of selling his product in the North of England
THE NAME Carnet] Tours is associated with the top end of the coaching market these days. It has become a name associated with high-specification coaches and longdistance shuttle operations. It is also a name that has become associated with expansion and the improving image of the coach.
However, Camel! Tours, like many operators in the North of England, has been going through a leaner time of late; a leaner time influenced by factors unrelated to the desire of local people to enjoy coach holidays or the quality of operation.
It has battled on against a background of high unemployment figures and the long and unsettling miners' dispute. These factors caused an unprecedented level of cancellation among Carnell's holiday customers.
As a result the usually ebullient Trevor Carnell is talking about getting out of the business, or at the least reducing his 16-strong coach fleet.
Trevor started his Sheffield business around 25 years ago. He has developed it into a well-known holiday company with the strength of a fully equipped and owned depot and an Association of British Travel Agents bonding behind it.
The present coach fleet consists of coaches less than three years' old and includes 12 Kassbohrer Setra vehicles. The oldest Carnell Tours coaches include a Daf and a Volvo with Van Roo' bodies, an MAN SR280 and a Jonckheere-bodied Mercedes-Benz 0 3 0 3. All 16 coaches are 12-metre vehicles with reclining seats, serveries and toilets.
Carnal Tours was the first British operator to take delivery of a Setra Imperial double-decker coach and currently has two of these impressive vehicles in service.
Trevor may be a little despondent about the future but he has not lost his eye for the latest trends in top-of-the market coaching. Many pundits suggest that more and more passengers will come to expect the luxury that air conditioning can bring to the coach.
The latest two single-deck Setra S215H1) vehicles to join theCarnell are fully air-conditioned. The air-c tioned coaches are at present mainly on touring work in liritair on the Continent.
While other coach operators hav4 feted from the collapse of tour panics, Carnell has had no problem. Most of its shuttle and work is what has been sold froi own programme through ABTA , agents in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, tinghamshire, Humberside Lincolnshire.
Carnell Tours will operate jou for other operators if it has the cap but only for an agreed and ecor price on agreed terms. Trevor C regrets the way some holiday comt expect the coach operator to months for his money and that operators still indulge in cut-throa uneconomic competition with other.
While the catchment area for C. Tours and holidays is mainly ir North of England, the company not turn business away and will a bookings from passengers wishin join coaches at towns en route ai other strategic points such as moto service areas and ferry points.
Carnell clients get a holiday comes with a numbered and rcsi seat, free holiday insurance and a antec of no surcharges. ABTA hot also ensures that clients' money is a as it is with far larger holiday panics.
In Sheffield Camel! aims to Ix name every family thinks of first • it comes to holidays and, in additi4
Left: The fleet includes two Serra Impet double-deck coaches. This vehicle, pictur Sheffield, was soon to leave on a regulal shuttle run to Lido di Jesolo in Italy. ausiness generated by travel agents, e strong and innovative but lowmarketing is undertaken in the win in Sundays in January and February nell Tours holds open days at its ffield garage. Members of the public invited to inspect the operation and :oaches, given light refreshments and wri videos of Camel holidays on the :oach video systems. Last winter ipective clients were offered short ionstration rides on the latest Setra :hes to join the fleet.
:oaches are also stationed at strategic pping centres in the winter and staff always on hand to accept bookings. riter convoys of Carnet] Tours' :hes liberally decorated with posters attracting the local populace.
/file Trevor Carnet] realises the le of advertising holidays, he is worthat the cost of advertising can get of hand and that public reaction has )e monitored in order to check that advertising is providing value for
he power of the media is somethingvor is also aware of As if the minstrike and the recession were not agh, the Brussels football disaster, example, caused a ripple of cancella
tions on holidays to destinations in Italy. Holidaymakers were worried about possible reprisals. Similarly, news stories about the upsurge of mugging in Spain have also resulted in people thinking twice about their holidays.
The Camel! Tours brochure includes destinations in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, France and Yugoslavia. It includes express coach holidays and gentler trips such as executive tours to wine-growing regions.
Came11 service includes numerous little extras. For a small fee clients can leave their cars under cover in the Carnell depot. This service used to be free, but now a charge is made. People seem more willing to leave their car keys if they are paying for a service and it is important for the operator to hold keys in case vehicles have to be moved in an emergency. So in addition to all the operational complexities of operating multi-driver shuttles, Carneil Tours also has to cope with the problems of the tour operator. This year, for example, Yugoslavian resorts have become popular and while the Yugoslays are generally very helpful Trevor told me that there have been cases of hotels overbooking.
Camels Tours has invested very heavily in new coaches during the past few years. However, re-equipping with Setra coaches is intended to be a longterm policy. The coaches are designed for a long life and all have dateless, "cherished" number plates. The coaches are likely to remain in service for at least six years and possibly longer. They are liked by passengers and drivers and they are particularly well made. According to Trevor Carnell, the Kassbohrer back-up is good.
Trevor seems set to standardise on Setra by reducing the coach fleet to the 12 currently in his fleet.
Although he is happy with the Mercedes-Benz Jonekheere and the Daf and Volvo Van HooIs, he told me they do not bear direct comparison with the Setra. He is less happy with the MAN SR280 Highliner, which has floor problems at present. He was among the first operators to buy MANs and at one time had three in his fleet, but he was less than complimentary about the service provided by the coaches and even less complimentary about the back-up.
Despite these problems, the Camel{ base at Sheffield has an air of permanence, so I would be very surprised if the multi-coloured Carnell Setras were not regular visitors to the autoroutes for years to come.
It is easy to sympathise with the ambitious coach operator when unrelated problems start to daMage a well-run business. Camel Tours offers the new approach to the coach, according to its brochure, but it competes with others with a more hackneyed approach.
Frustrations? Despite the EEC, coaches are still delayed at frontiers. Some European police and border guards still virtually ask for duty-free cigarettes to usher vehicles through frontiers quickly . . . and so it goes on.