MEDINA, Ohio — When the tour bus pulled up earlier this month, Dana Klaus said it was like 2013 all over again, when Castle Noel first opened to the public.
“We were so excited,” she said. “It was like our very first bus, when we first opened.”
Castle Noel, the Christmas-themed pop culture attraction, typically welcomes more than 70 tour buses annually, filled with visitors from across the country ready for holiday cheer, no matter the time of year.
The museum hadn’t seen a single bus since March – until the group from North Carolina arrived earlier this month.
To Dana Klaus, who owns Castle Noel with husband Mark, the buses symbolized something of a return to normalcy, even as the coronavirus pandemic rages on. “People need joy in their life right now,” she said. “When you walk through our doors, you forget about the world behind you.”
The group tour business – decimated by the pandemic – is showing small signs of life this fall, after being dormant for months.
Cleveland-based Great Day! Tours has four upcoming tours in December, after offering fewer than two dozen in recent months. Among the destinations: Dickens Victorian Village in Cambridge, Ohio; holiday lights in Pittsburgh; and the Biltmore Estate and the Smokies in North Carolina.
The North Carolina trip is the only one that includes an overnight stay. Allen Kinney, the long-time owner of Great Day!, said tours this year have been closer to home, including many in Ohio.
Travel restrictions have complicated the planning, he said. New York City, a popular holiday destination, is out because of quarantine and testing rules required by the state of New York. Holiday lights in Niagara Falls, Ontario, aren’t possible, either, because of the continued closure of the U.S.-Canadian border.
Still, Kinney says the extra planning effort is worth it. “We’ve had to be quick to adapt,” he said. “But there’s so much pent-up demand.”
Kinney said the buses are running no more than half full – that’s 28 passengers on a vehicle that seats 56. The buses are cleaned regularly and passengers are required to get their temperature checked daily and wear a mask while entering, exiting and moving around the bus.
“We’re trying to prove that we can do it safely and keep people thinking about travel,” he said. “We’re not making money on these tours.”
A Great Day! tour on a bus trip to Mount Rushmore in July.
Despite these measures, Dr. Keith Armitage, medical director of the University Hospitals Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health, said would-be travelers should be very cautious about bus tours now, especially because bus travelers skew older.
“A bus could be considered an ‘indoor space,’ and depending on the filtration and air circulation, would be a high risk for transmission,” he said. “Until we have a vaccine, I would not recommend prolonged bus rides that were nonessential.”
Peter Pantuso, president and CEO of the American Bus Association, said the group tour industry has been very cautious about resuming operations in recent months. He estimates that companies are operating at less than 10% of what business would be normally.
“From what I am seeing and hearing, there is still very little group travel, but lots of optimism,” he said. “Most of the trips that I have seen are one-offs and not the normal.”
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, probably Northeast Ohio’s biggest group-tour draw, says there has been a slow uptick in interest for group tours – but not until the spring of 2021. A spokeswoman for Destination Cleveland said group tour inquiries for the region remain very low.
In addition to traveler trepidation, restrictions and closures contribute to the uncertainty, including new stay-at-home advisories issued in parts of Ohio, including Cuyahoga and Medina counties, and elsewhere. The Rock Hall announced last week that it was closing indefinitely, starting Nov. 23.
“Many of the attractions remain closed like theaters in New York City and other entertainment venues,” said Pantuso. “These are a huge draw this time of year.”
Great Day! has faced numerous obstacles, as well. A recent tour to Branson, Missouri, presented a challenge to organizers: The group was planning to stay overnight in Illinois, which had recently banned indoor dining at restaurants. Kinney’s staff quickly found alternative lodging in St. Louis, where the group could eat indoors.
Great Day! also recently canceled numerous trips to the Winter Festival of Lights at Oglebay Resort in West Virginia because of capacity restrictions at some of the park’s shops and museums.
One destination that remains open and ready to accommodate bus travelers: Medina’s Castle Noel. Great Day! has a tour scheduled there for early December, combined with a stop at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron.
Castle Noel, which reopened in September after being closed for months, has put in place numerous measures to ensure guest safety, including mandatory reservations, smaller tour sizes and the addition of frequent sanitation stations.
The Great Day! tour is one of a handful scheduled for next month, according to Dana Klaus. This year was on pace to be the museum’s best ever in terms of bus traffic, with as much as 30% of total visitation from group tours, she said.
For now, though, Klaus is happy to see even a few buses roll up to her Court Street address. “Christmas is not canceled,” she said.
Santa Claus visits with guests safely as part of the new Safe Santa Magical Experience at Castle Noel in Medina.
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Bus group tour business inching back slowly, cautiously to Medina’s Castle Noel, other venues - cleveland.com
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