Coach companies call for cheaper excursions

THE Balearic Transport Federation announced yesterday that it will ask the new government's transport ministry to reduce the price of tourist excursions. The last government introduced a regulation to protect public transport, under which excursions had to be 100 per cent dearer than public transport. The Federation would like to see this cut to 30 per cent. The request was made public yesterday at the presentation of an advanced simulator for driving lorries and coaches which belongs to the business association CAEB. The Transport Federation is backed in its request by the travel agencies' association AVIBA, which confirmed that the programme for excursions this summer is way below last year's levels. The drop in the number of visitors this season means that 30 per cent of the fleet of 850 coaches is parked in the depots from Monday to Friday, a Federation spokesman said yesterday. He added that the fleet is only fully occupied on Saturdays and Sundays, but the level of activity drops drastically during the rest of the week.
This means that productivity has dropped between 15 and 20 per cent over estimates made at the start of the season.
Many companies face a bleak winter if this trend continues, the spokesman said, adding that urgent measures need to be taken to remedy the situation and attract more tourists. The simulator will be used for courses from today to the end of the month.
It is a Trust Thales 800 and reproduces the conditions of heavy vehicles: a real driving cabin, every type of weather effects and road conditions, as well as various types of vehicles with different loads.