Why Ticket Tailor is perfect for coach tours – a real-life example 😎

Clarkes Travel Day Trips is a coach tour business that runs unforgettable adventures out of Birmingham. Think charming seaside towns, historic villages, museums, zoos, Christmas fares and all manner of other cool events across the region. We recently had a chat with Clarkes Travel Director James Clarke to discover why he loves using Ticket Tailor. The takeaway? Our platform is the perfect partner for coach tours thanks to a range of features that help with the specifics of selling tour tickets online 🙏. Keep reading to find out more. 

🤝 Meet the pro

James Clarke has worked in the travel and tourism industry for most of his life. When the company he’d dedicated many years to finally decided to sell – he bit the bullet and set up his own business in 2017. “It was nerve-wracking to say the least, when you get comfortable receiving a regular salary,” James tells us. “It was actually a ‘Gentleman’s Handshake’ with another operator that got us on the road with our first vehicle – as you can appreciate, when starting out with nothing, a lot of businesses are reluctant to work with you. Thankfully, I had been in the industry for so long that I’d built many lasting relationships.”  

Today, Clarkes Travel Day Trips is thriving, offering a wide range of fun days out and always with knowledgeable, professional drivers on-hand to help attendees get the most out of their experiences. Taking the time to speak with every single passenger is the key to running a successful coach tour business, James highlights. Nice 👏.

🚌 Coach tours & Ticket Tailor – why it works

When, like James, you’re running a tour business – there’s no doubt you’ve got more than enough to keep you busy without having to worry about complex ticketing stuff. Good news 😎 – a platform like Ticket Tailor is packed full of useful features that make selling tour tickets online a doddle. Let’s take a look:

✅ Multiple pick-up points 

Each day trip run by Clarkes Travel usually has a whole host of pick-up points so attendees can hop on the coach at a place that suits them. Ticket Tailor makes it really easy to accommodate this; you can edit your checkout form to gather as much information as you need. See it in action:

✅ Different ticket types

Being able to sell multiple ticket types helps James deliver a product that works for everyone. For example, he sells his main tickets at three different price points – for infants, kids, and adults. He also uses this feature to run special promotions – like a limited time ‘Man and child’ ticket. 

Selling different ticket types is a great way to make sure your trips feel accessible to a wider audience. For example, selling cheaper kids’ tickets helps to make things much more affordable for families. You can also get creative with things like group booking discounts to encourage ticket sales. And you could even sell seasonal ticket types – like discounted ‘Parent and child’ tickets for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Want to build hype around your trips? Selling Early Bird tickets at a lower cost creates a sense of scarcity and encourages people to grab their tickets before prices go up.

👀 Tip: Want to make sure a child ticket isn't purchased without an adult ticket? Check out how you can do this with ticket dependencies.

✅ Super simple for customers (and higher conversion!)

Too many barriers on the way to hitting ‘Purchase’ can be a real turn-off when buying something online. Hefty forms and (seemingly) hundreds of buttons to click? That’s a recipe for a peeved purchaser who’s ready to abandon cart. This is something James highlighted when talking about how easy Ticket Tailor is to use for his customers:

“We find the fewer number of clicks the better when it comes to our customers making that final purchase. Some of our competitors make you go through six or seven steps just to book!” 

✅ Very easy event set-up 

James runs a tour business – not a tech startup! He doesn’t have time to faff around with code or to navigate a tricky ticketing platform. Which is why he loves how easy Ticket Tailor is to use. “We manage our own website, but we’re not that knowledgeable with coding. Ticket Tailor was easy to implement – it made integrating our box office with our website really simple.”

👀Tip: You definitely don’t have to be a tech whizz to integrate your Ticket Tailor box office with your website. Which is great, because this means customers never actually have to leave your site when buying tickets. As James highlighted above – the less effort it takes for customers to buy tickets, the better! 

✅ Waiting lists 

When your trips are just that good (like Clarkes Travel Day Trips 🙌), it’s inevitable that they’ll sell out. In this case, it can be really handy to be able to implement waitlists via your ticketing platform – so those that missed out can sign up to be notified of any cancellations. Ticket Tailor has a simple waitlist feature that makes this manageable in just a few clicks.

Making use of waitlists can be a lifesaver for businesses that rely on bums-on-seats, helping to reduce the impact of cancellations. It’s also a great way to nurture your event community and improve customer service. Perfect. 

Ready to kickstart your coach tours with low cost ticketing that meets your needs to a tee? 

Find out more about tour & attraction ticketing with Ticket Tailor >