20 May 2009

Woods is pulling up trees! Coach firm wins award

Leicester travel company Woods Coaches has won a major tourism award for its day trips.

The Wigston company was shortlisted for two trophies at the Coach Tourism Awards 2009, held last night [Tuesday, May 19] at the swanky Ricoh Arena, in Coventry, and not only won Day Excursion Operator of the Year but was runner-up in the Coach Operator of the Year category.

"When the presenter on stage announced our name last night I just felt´ wow.´ It blew me away," said Woods´ Managing Director Kevin Brown, who collected the trophy from EastEnders star ´Barry´ - real-life Shaun Williamson. "We´re all really chuffed.

"Instead of just telling our team that they´re doing a great job, we could bring back an award which proves it. We´re all really proud of our achievement."

Woods takes a staggering 27,000 day trippers away every year, in addition to holidaymakers and groups. They can choose from 660 excursions - as varied as West End shows, the seaside and even this week´s Chelsea Flower show - and can book their trip on the internet.

Judges of the award were impressed with the growth of Woods´ day trip programme: "Part of that is down to the convenience of using the Narborough Road Park and Ride as a pick-up point. It´s a great, free facility. But we´ve also seen 150% growth in our internet bookings - it´s so convenient for our customers.," said Mr Brown.

Total day trip bookings went up 12% last year and Mr Brown says, despite the recession, he´s expecting it to grow again: "There´s a lot of talk about gloom but we´ve kept positive. The Woods team believes in putting up a fight. We are going to go for it."

Key facts

* Woods Coaches is not new to awards. It was Coach Operator of the Year in 2005, won the Excursion Programme award in 2007, and its traffic manager Bill Tanser won Coach Manager of the Year in 2007.
* Woods runs 16 coaches from 29 to 53 seats, including the plush VIP coach used by Leicester Tigers
* Woods Managing Director Kevin Brown is also chairman of the elite Guild of British Coach Operators

* 273 million people went on a coach for leisure purposes last year while nearly seven million people spent £1.15 billion on a UK coach touring holiday.
* In addition there were 266 million day trips by coach with each passenger spending more than £50 on the trip.
* Coach travel is the greenest travel option in the UK today with the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per passenger per kilometre of any mode of transport
* A coach is twice as efficient as a train, nearly four times more efficient than the car and six times more efficient than air travel.
* Coaches help cut congestion - a coach carrying 50 passengers takes the place of 20 cars on the road
* Travelling from London to Edinburgh by coach is four times cheaper than going by car
* Safety: Coaches are seven times safer per mile than a car. They each get a maintenance check every day, and a full examination every four to six weeks