Speeches: Francesco Pacifico, President, IRU Passenger Transport Council, Italy

7th IRU East-West Road Transport Conference Budapest, 15-16 May 2003 Budapest Congress Centre (BCC), Alkotas u. 63-67 - 1123 Budapest, Hungary

Francesco Pacifico
President, IRU Passenger Transport Council, Italy

In my presentation I would like to highlight three major playing fields of coach tourism:

1. The role of the coach in the economy
2. Coaches pave the way to sustainable mobility
3. The future of coach tourism in an enlarged Europe and in emerging economies
4. The role of the coach in the tourism industry is of major importance.

Coach tourism plays a role in the overall economy; in fact, it accounts for up to 2% of GDP in European economies.

But: Apart from its importance for the overall economy, coach tourism also plays a major role in the local economy. A study commissioned by the IRU shows that 68% of coach tourists stay in hotels, which is a higher proportion than those travelling by any other means, including air transport. Furthermore, a coach tourist spends, on average, 40% more per day than any other type of tourist and he spends this money in restaurants, souvenir shops, for entertainment etc.
It follows from the above that governments and local authorities need to recognise the importance of the coach in the economy. Encouraging coach-based tourism is a reasonable investment, which will generate a continuous flow of income into the local economy.

Coach tourism not only benefits the economy, it is also an environmentally friendly mode of transport. The prerequisites for sustainable coach tourism are what IRU calls the 3 'i' strategy: innovation, incentives and infrastructure.

As for innovation, at source measures are the best way to reduce the environmental impact of transport. To carry one passenger over 100 km, coaches need on average only half a litre of diesel. To add a few more impressive figures: Between 1990 and 2003, CO, HC and NOx emissions have been reduced by around 50%, and the emission rate of particulates has dropped by 70 %.

But: Coach operators also need incentives for a faster introduction of the best available technology and practices. Such incentives could include vehicle sales tax reductions, vehicle tax reductions and fuel tax reductions.
Finally, free-flowing traffic is a sine qua non condition for sustainable transport. Waiting in a traffic jam equals wasting fuel and producing unsatisfied passengers. We need adequate infrastructure on highways and in cities, including satisfactory parking facilities.

Coaches are an environmentally-friendly alternative to other modes of transport, e.g. short-distance flights and private cars. Especially in emerging economies, where a rapid growth of traffic demand is expected, coaches lead the way to decoupling road transport growth from its environmental impact. But it is essential that governments provide our industry with real business incentives.

Infrastructure is a key element, because in emerging economies car ownership and car use will grow rapidly.
As railway infrastructure is deteriorating in emerging economies, the railways are clearly not able to deal with the increasing transport demand and they are not an alternative to private cars. Coach transport, on the other hand, is an alternative; and regular passenger transport by coach ensures the mobility of people. The market share of coach transport should therefore be preserved at a high level. In this context, I would like to appeal to decision-makers in Eastern Europe not to repeat the same mistakes that were made by West European countries, namely cross-subsidisation and neglecting adequate infrastructure investments, to name but a few.

Let me now give you a brief outlook into the future of coach tourism in emerging economies and in an enlarged European Union.

In emerging markets, price is the key element for the choice of the preferred transport mode. Companies will soon learn that quality sells, too.

People want to get from A to B as cheaply and as fast as possible. Especially in emerging markets, the price plays a bigger role than in West European countries. But price alone is not sustainable. With an increase in wealth, people start looking for quality.

Quality, therefore, sells: the quality of the tour, the quality of the tour guide, the quality of the travelling group, the friendliness of the driver, the quality and safety standard of the vehicle, and the quality of other services related to the trip such as luggage handling or door-to-door service.

In order to satisfy the needs of passengers and to ensure quality and safety standards, tour operators need sufficient information on coach travelling. Of course, the most modern vehicles and the latest coach equipment require considerable investments by coach operators for which they cannot pay alone if they want to ensure the economic survival of their company. For this reason, certain costs have to be passed on to the clients.
The fastest growing and biggest market for coach transport and public transport is the Far East.
Just a few weeks ago, I visited the International Bus and Coach fair 'Busworld' in Shanghai. It was absolutely impressive; the Far East is visibly a dynamic and rapidly growing market.The question arises whether we are prepared to start joint ventures in China. The fact is that the manufacturers are already there, but Western transport operators are not, so there is still some preparation and work to be done.

Regarding the enlargement process of the European Union, the Interbus agreement will play an important role in the near future.

Harmonised, simple documents and procedures are the prerequisites for any fast, reliable and high quality coach transport system. This general rule also applies to the Interbus agreement which was born in 1995, when the EU started negotiations with several Central and East European countries to conclude an international agreement. The objectives are to replace the bilateral agreements and to reduce the documents needed to one document only. Since the beginning of this year, Interbus is in force.

There are still some problems with implementation, but the development is going in the right direction. Ultimately, Interbus has the potential to reduce waiting times at borders for a large number of travellers - time that could be spent consuming services at destination - and this closes the circle with item 1 of my presentation, the role of the coach in the economy.
To sum up my presentation in one sentence, I would like to underline once more that coach transport is a consumer-friendly answer to sustainable mobility needs in a modern Europe and in emerging markets.
Thank you for your attention

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