CLEVELAND, Ohio — For the first time in months, a Great Day! Tours bus this week took a group of Northeast Ohio travelers on a daylong trip across the state.
That may not sound newsworthy, but it is noteworthy, a first step toward what long-time Great Day owner Allen Kinney hopes is a steady recovery of his battered industry.
Like almost all travel and transportation companies, the tour and charter bus industry has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. From mid-January through mid-June, Great Day did not operate a single public tour, and Kinney says he’ll be lucky to offer 100 tours this year, down from about 300 in a typical year.
And those that he does offer will include far fewer travelers. He’s limiting space on all bus tours to half-capacity to improve socially distancing and promote safety. So a bus that normally holds 56 will carry approximately 25 paying customers, he said.
“Our big goal right now is just to get the trips rolling again to show we can do it the right way,” said Kinney, who founded Great Day! with his wife, Ann, back in 1964.
His trip Thursday took 17 Northeast Ohio passengers to Fremont, where they learned about police dog training, interacted with Clydesdale horses, enjoyed lunch and stopped for a wine tasting.
Tours next month include day trips to the Lake Erie islands and Grove City, Pa., and overnights to Mount Rushmore and Peoria, Illinois. His company also offers charter trips to groups, and interest in that business is starting to pick up, as well, he said.
Several other tour companies that operate in Northeast Ohio are gradually rescheduling and adding tours to their calendars, as well, including AAA and Anderson, which have tours planned for July and August.
“We’re just starting to hear companies that are just beginning to move a few folks,” said Peter Pantuso, president and CEO of the American Bus Association, which represents all aspects of bus transportation, including hundreds of group tour operators across the country. “It’s a trickle. It’s really a slow trickle.”
He fears some companies won’t make it to recovery. “I get calls weekly from one or two companies asking me who they should go to to value their company and their equipment. They’re not sure how much longer they can hold on.”
The bus association has been lobbying members of Congress to be included in the next round of federal bailout money, expected later this summer. Pantuso said the airline industry and Amtrak both received billions of dollars in assistance in the last round – while the bus industry got nothing.
He points out that buses transport nearly as many travelers as airlines (600 million passenger trips on buses in an average year versus 700 million on planes) and significantly more than trains.
Hundreds of motorcoach companies, including Great Day!, participated last month in a “rolling rally” in Washington, D.C., hoping to build support. “I think our biggest challenge has been that as an industry we don’t go to Congress every year looking for a handout,” he said. “And when we really needed it, Congress forgot about us.”
In the meantime, Kinney and his staff are working to make customers feel safe and comfortable when they return.
In addition to reducing capacity on their tours, Great Day is requiring travelers to wear face masks as they board and exit and move around the bus. Masks are not required when passengers are sitting, however.
The company is sanitizing the buses regularly, and staying updated on what hotels, attractions and partner vendors are doing to minimize the risk of illness while traveling. Great Day has canceled trips to some destinations, including New York City, because of the virus, Kinney said.
The efforts seem to be working, as some summer tours have already filled up.
“For a couple of months, every call that came in was for cancellations and refunds,” he said. “Now people are starting to call and book.”
Read more:
Amtrak will reduce long-distance service to three-times weekly, including trains through Cleveland
Cleveland Hopkins airport gradually adding back flights, with leisure destinations leading the way
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June 26, 2020 at 04:56PM
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