Coach Companies' Drive to Attract Foreign Tourists
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BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT
BRITISH coach companies are co-operating with hoteliers in the biggest drive ever to persuade thousands of Continental tourists, in the middle-income bracket, to visit northern beauty-spots and places of interest. The leading figure behind the scheme is Mr. Geoffrey N. Wright, manager of the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, and chairman of the northern division of the British Hotels and Restaurants Association. He is receiving enthusiastic support from Mr. H. N. Tuff, general manager, West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd.
Mr. Wright plans to secure reciprocal trade in this country, particularly the north of England, for the increasing number of Britons who go abroad for their holidays every year. Last winter he and other leading members of the northern division of the B.H.R.A. went to Continental countries to meet travel agents and coach proprietors. Since then foreign travel agents have made tours of the north of England in special coaches supplied by the West Yorkshire company.
This year visitors travelling from the Continent under the new scheme are expected to arrive in August. Next year it is expected that the season will run from May to September. Some tourists will come from the Hook of Holland to Harwich but most of them will arrive at Hull from Rotterdam.
An application for a linking coach service, between Hull and the Harrogate hotels, has already been made to the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners by the West Yorkshire company and East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd. Another route will be through Manchester airport and on to the various northern centres by coach..
The West Yorkshire company have already published foreign language itineraries of coach tours, and big business on the one-day excursions from Harrogate to the Lake District, Yorkshire Moors, York and Whitby is expected. The cost of a week's tour is attractive.
" A secondary consideration of the tourist drive has been to encourage more foreign coach operators to bring their vehicles over to this country, but this has been hit by Ministry regulations governing vehicle dimensions. However, British coach operators will benefit because coaches will be chartered.
In addition to one-centre holidays, an itinerary is being drawn up by strategically placed hotels, which are willing to co-operate in arranging inclusive circular tours.
Mr. Wright also hopes to link the project with the Europabus network to bring the service to Victoria Coach Station, London, into the picture. Later this year, he plans to visit the Scandinavian countries with a view to a further extension of the scheme.
A German operator is planning to send a new coach, which will comply with Ministry regulations, on a pilot tour in the autumn.