ETOA backs Smart Move campaign for bus and coach travel
Thursday, 06 Feb, 2010
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Recently Head of Tour Operator Relations, Nick Greenfield outlined ETOA’s support for the Smart Move campaign “Many of our members use coaches as an efficient, enjoyable and green way to run their tours.”
“We are working with bodies such as European Cities Marketing to improve the general infrastructure for tourist coaches in cities across Europe. A smart approach by cities in providing clear signage, well placed drop off and pick up points, accessible parking closer to places of interest and good facilities for the visitors is in everyone’s interest. The Smart Move campaign is a major boost to these aims and will also raise awareness among the public at large.”
The European inauguration of the Smart Move campaign took place on the first annual European Bus and Coach Day in Brussels an event attended by business leaders, Members of the European Parliament, officials from the EU institutions and NGOs. Events also featured a workshop on the contribution of private and public sector bus and coach transport.
The chief aim of Smart Move is to raise political and media awareness of the benefits of bus and coach travel and to promote measures to make coaches more welcome in cities and other tourist destinations.
Bus and coach-friendly legislation is needed to realise the full potential of buses and coaches. Authorities should establish and promote park-and-ride services and prominently display information on available services. Together with bus and coach operators, authorities might also develop marketing tools and incentive schemes to encourage greater use of buses and coaches.
The European bus and coach industry used the opportunity of the Smart Move launch to call on EU policy decision makers to promote the use of passenger transport by bus and coach in the future EU White Paper on the European Transport Policy.
A key objective of the Smart Move campaign is to double the use of buses and coaches for collective transport in Europe over the next ten to 15 years and to emphasise that advances in clean technology have made bus and coach travel the most green, safe and environment-friendly means of mobility.
“Scientists and environmental agencies around the world are agreed that buses and coaches are the genuine environmental champions above all other modes of collective transport,” said Graham Smith, Vice President of the International Road Transport Union (IRU). “Doubling the use of buses and coaches in the EU alone will mean a reduction of 50 million tonnes of CO2 per year.”
Speaking at the launch of Smart Move, Mr Smith said promoting bus and coach travel would create 4 million new jobs in Europe and save lives. “Achieving the Smart Move objective of doubling the use of buses and coaches in the EU is expected to reduce fatalities on European roads by more than 3000 per year,” he said. “On top of that, doubling the use of buses and coaches will reduce car traffic by 10-15%, which will lead to a genuine traffic revolution and a spectacular reduction of bottlenecks on European roads.” The Smart Move campaign is open for participation and contribution/support to any bus and coach industry stakeholder who shares the vision and objectives of the campaign. Partners/supporters are encouraged to use the logos and other campaign materials to pursue the campaign’s objectives.
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