Stop Selling the Bus. Start Selling the Experience.
Why Motorcoach Operators May Need to Think More Like Hospitality Companies
By Danny B.
International tourism to the United States has been struggling.
U.S. Travel reported that international visitation fell 5.5% in 2025, with Canada accounting for a significant part of that decline. Although a recovery is forecast, international visitation isn't expected to return to 2019 levels until 2029.
For motorcoach operators that depend on airports, cruise ports, sightseeing groups and international tours, that's a problem.
But I don't think waiting for tourism to come back is enough.
Maybe we need to change what we're selling.
A Bus Ride Shouldn't Feel Like a City Bus
Think about the typical tourist transportation experience.
Passengers get off an airplane or cruise ship.
They find the bus.
The driver loads the luggage.
Everybody gets on.
The driver drives.
Everybody gets off.
We fulfilled the contract.
But did we create an experience?
There is a big difference between transporting someone and hosting someone.
The motorcoach industry has invested heavily in the physical product. Beautiful paint. Leather seats. Wi-Fi. USB outlets. Wood-look floors. Entertainment systems. New coaches costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Those things matter.
But once the passenger sits down, what separates the experience from any other form of public transportation besides a nicer seat and a better-looking bus?
Increasingly, service may matter just as much as aesthetics.
Look at What the Cruise Industry Is Doing
Cruise companies understand this extremely well.
They don't simply sell transportation across the ocean.
They sell an experience around the transportation.
Carnival reported $9.2 billion in onboard and other revenue during 2025, representing roughly 35% of total revenue. That category includes things such as shore excursions, beverages, specialty dining, retail and other experiences. In the first half of 2026, Carnival generated another $4.5 billion in onboard and other revenue.
Royal Caribbean operates on a similar model. Passenger tickets represented roughly 70% of its 2025 revenue, with the remainder coming from onboard and other revenue sources including shore excursions, dining, beverages, internet, retail and other activities.
There's a lesson there for motorcoach operators.
The transportation doesn't have to be the entire product.
What If We Added Hospitality Back to the Bus?
Imagine 45 cruise passengers getting onto a motorcoach in Miami.
Instead of only a driver, there is an onboard host.
They greet passengers as they board.
They help organize luggage and seating.
Cold bottled water is available.
They explain where the group is going.
They point out interesting locations along the route.
They answer questions.
They recommend restaurants, shopping areas and attractions.
Maybe the company has partnered with a local restaurant, mall, attraction or tour provider.
Maybe that host is also a trained local guide.
Suddenly:
Port → Mall → Hotel
isn't just transportation anymore.
It's a product.
And compared with the cost of purchasing another bus, adding a hospitality person to selected trips could be a relatively small investment with the potential to create considerably more value.
The details would obviously need to comply with applicable employment, food-service, insurance and tour-guide requirements. But the larger idea is simple:
Use the equipment we already own differently.
A CDL Doesn't Automatically Make Someone a Hospitality Professional
This is probably the uncomfortable part of the conversation.
There are some incredible professional motorcoach drivers in this industry.
But knowing how to safely operate a 45-foot motorcoach and knowing how to create an exceptional passenger experience are two different skills.
We sometimes forget that.
A motorcoach driver working with tourists isn't driving a city route.
That driver may be the first American an international visitor has a real conversation with after arriving.
They may represent the bus company, the tour company and, indirectly, the destination itself.
How they greet passengers matters.
How they communicate matters.
How they handle luggage matters.
How they respond when something goes wrong matters.
Customer service is part of the product.
We spend enormous amounts of money training people to operate equipment.
Maybe we need to invest more in teaching people how to take care of passengers.
The Customer Is Changing
Cruise travel gives us another clue.
Travel Market Report's 2026 cruise outlook found that 69% of surveyed advisors considered the ability to book shore excursions through a cruise app important to their clients' experience.
At the higher end of the market, travelers are increasingly seeking smaller, more personal and culturally connected experiences rather than simply being driven past landmarks.
That creates competition for traditional motorcoach sightseeing.
But it also creates opportunity.
A bus company doesn't necessarily have to lose that customer to a private SUV.
Maybe the answer is creating a better bus experience.
Multilingual guides.
Food tours.
Architecture tours.
Shopping packages.
Cruise excursions.
Sports packages.
Restaurant partnerships.
Airport welcome services.
Pre- and post-cruise tours.
Local-history experiences.
The bus becomes the platform.
The experience becomes the product.
Stop Waiting for Someone Else to Bring You the Passenger
This may be the biggest behavioral change our industry needs.
The traditional model has been:
We own buses. Call us when you need transportation.
A broker calls.
A tour company calls.
A cruise contractor calls.
A school calls.
We quote the bus.
Then everybody competes over price.
What if more operators started asking a different question?
We own buses. What experience can we build that people will pay for?
Now you're no longer necessarily waiting for somebody else to create the trip.
You're creating something that hotels, travel agents, cruise passengers, convention planners and tourists can buy.
There are already companies demonstrating that guided motorcoach tourism remains viable. AlliedTPro, for example, currently markets professionally guided U.S. seat-in-coach programs to tour companies in more than 50 countries, including multilingual and language-specific itineraries combining transportation, guides, airport transfers, meals and destinations.
The concept isn't new.
Maybe independent operators simply need to participate in more of it.
Sometimes the Hole in the Wall Wins
There's a reason people tell you to find the little hole-in-the-wall restaurant when you visit a new city.
It may not have the expensive building.
It may not have the fanciest furniture.
But somebody inside that restaurant really cares about the food.
And customers can feel it.
Transportation isn't that different.
You can have the newest coach in town.
But if another company makes passengers feel welcomed, appreciated and taken care of, the customer remembers how that company made them feel.
That's difficult to copy with paint and leather.
Maybe We're Not Just Transportation Companies
International tourism will eventually change again.
Markets recover.
Travel patterns shift.
Economic conditions improve.
But I don't think operators should simply park buses and wait for the old business to return.
Slower periods are when businesses have to become more creative.
Instead of immediately asking:
How do we find more trips?
Maybe we should ask:
How do we make every passenger worth more while giving them something genuinely better?
That might mean investing in people before investing in another piece of equipment.
It might mean hiring hosts.
Training drivers in hospitality.
Building partnerships.
Creating tours.
Selling experiences directly.
And treating passengers like guests instead of simply occupants of a seat.
Because the next generation of successful motorcoach companies may not think of themselves strictly as transportation companies.
They may think of themselves as hospitality companies that happen to own buses.
And that small change in thinking could completely change what a bus is worth.
References
U.S. Travel Association — U.S. Travel Forecast, May 2026
Carnival Corporation — 2025 Annual Results
Carnival Corporation — Q2 2026 Financial Report
Royal Caribbean Group — 2025 Annual Report
Travel Market Report — 2026 Ocean Cruise Outlook
AlliedTPro — 2026 Escorted U.S. Tours
About the Author
Dhinel "Danny" Biyanwela is a transportation operations professional specializing in fleet acquisition, refurbishment, maintenance strategy, logistics, compliance and commercial passenger transportation. Through BTE Group LLC, he works with transportation companies and fleet operators on practical solutions for purchasing, maintaining and operating commercial passenger vehicles.
He is also the founder and publisher of The Motorcoach Insider, where he writes about the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the motorcoach, charter bus, tourism and private transportation industries.
Connect with Danny on LinkedIn.
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