Don’t Miss The Bus

After focusing solely on Europe since 1998, freestyle travel brand Busabout recently added Asia to its repertoire. The expansion includes itineraries in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma, reports staff writer, Ann Ruppenstein in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier.

“We’ve had a brochure out for six to seven months, but it actually started operating in May, and forward bookings for us are fantastic,” explained Damien Bennett, director of sales for North America at Busabout. “We’ve got some great stuff mainly focusing on South-East Asia.”

The bulk of Busabout’s offerings remains in Europe, where its main product is a flexible hop-on, hop-off travel network with 34 stops across countries like Germany, France, Austria, Spain and Italy, which are organized along three different paths: a north, a south and a west loop.

“Passengers can buy single loop passes or combination passes, where you can do three loops together,” he says. “All the passenger needs to work out to begin with is where on the network they want to start and then they can spend as long or as little as they want at each stop, so it’s a really flexible way of traveling around.”

With a minimum age requirement of 18 and no upper age limit, Bennett says the concept is for those who are young or young at heart, but the majority of passengers tend to be between 18 to 40 years old. What makes the concept unique, he says, is that it’s unlike other travel options in the industry.

“Essentially on one end of the spectrum you’ve got train travel, EuroRail, which is an independent way of getting around Europe and then on the other end of the spectrum you’ve got touring, tour companies, Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight,” he says. “We kind of sit in the middle of it because we’re a transport network, and we’ve got guides, activities and things that are organized in each spot, if people want to do it.”

As part of The Travel Corp., he says many travellers across the country are aware of Busabout, but until now there’s never been a local representative to grow the brand in Canada.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier by clicking here.