Small tour industry booming
Aging demographic, high gasoline prices and a love of travel mean boom time for bus tours
A cottage industry is springing up in kitchens and home-offices across the province as New Brunswickers who enjoy travel transform themselves into tour organizers.
It's a growing market thanks to an aging demographic of New Brunswickers who love to travel but don't necessarily care for the long car drives that the trips entail, says Doug Burgess of Riverview, who with wife Linda operates Burgess Tours.
Burgess has an "in" in the business. He's a veteran bus driver for Acadian bus lines, with more than one million accident-free miles to his credit.
The Burgesses charter a modern Acadian Lines bus for their trips, Linda does the organizing and Doug does the driving during day trips and extended tours for shopping, concerts, special events or wherever the demand exists.
New Hampshire shopping trips -- bargain prices and no taxes -- are proving very popular.
"We fill two buses and the people shop until they drop."
Companies like Burgess Tours, Roadrunner Tours or Laurie's Tours are not well known, relying primarily on word-of-mouth advertising. But their clientele is growing.
Like the Burgesses, Laurie Coughlan of Laurie's Tours has been in business for about eight years.
"The competition nowadays is very tough," Coughlan, of Blissfield which is near Doaktown, says, noting that as the demand rises, so does the number of tour operators to fill that demand. But the better tour operators are doing well, he says.
"We offer them a reasonable price and give a quality trip, as well, to keep them coming back. You have to give them your very best and maintain a high reputation."
Last year, Coughlan made seven trips to New York City using chartered buses and hired drivers, "but we go all over."
Halifax's Royal Nova Scotia Tattoo, Broadway shows, state-side shopping trips and the Ottawa tulip festival are just some of the excursions they offer.
Coughlan always goes along on the tours to ensure a very personalized service, plus, the former long-haul trucker simply enjoys travelling.
The Burgesses started Burgess Tours while looking for a second career after their pending retirement and "so far it's been very successful for us, so hopefully we're doing a good job for the people."
Some of the big bus-tour operators say these smaller upstarts don't have to bear the same capital expenses. For example, most home-based operators carry their own liability insurance or piggyback on the chartered bus owners' insurance and off they go, touring the Cabot Trail, shopping in Bangor or taking in gospel-music shows and conventions in Kentucky.
The small guys argue they're just trying to fill a need in the marketplace for inexpensive, one-on-one tour services, where the passengers know the tour operators by name and, most often, the tour operator is right there sitting on the bus with them.
The Burgesses hope to expand their tours should the market continue to grow.
Coughlan believes that with skyrocketing fuel prices, tour operators that offer one reasonable price including transportation, hotels and meals for multi-day junkets can only become more and more popular.
"You just have to show up," Burgess says, "and your driver has all the worries, not you."
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