Launched as recently as 9 January as National Express’ new customer-facing brand for its leisure division, and offering short breaks and special-interest day trips across the UK and Europe, its Touromo brand is to close at the end of September. The brand was introduced to bring together National Express’ seven local coach brands to provide what the operator said at the time of its launch would be a best-in-class coach holiday experience under a single name. Managing Director John Boughton said the firm had ambitious plans to become a major player in the UK coach holiday sector and planned to capitalise on strong demand for holidays and day trips.
Commenting on the closure, a spokesperson for National Express, said: “We are refocusing our strategy on our core services of scheduled coach, private hire, accessible transport and bus, and will be closing our leisure touring business, Touromo, from 1 October. We will continue to run Touromo day trips and holidays in July, August and September. Customers who have booked summer holidays will be contacted immediately and reassured that their trips are guaranteed to go ahead, while those due to travel from 1 October onwards will be fully refunded.
“It has been a record year for our scheduled coach business and more and more customers are making the switch to coach travel. To meet this demand, we’re investing in growing our network, adding new routes across the UK and purchasing new, environmentally-efficient vehicles to add to our fleet. While National Express will cease to sell and operate coach holidays, we will continue to deliver high volumes of work for other touring companies via our private hire business, enabling our drivers and expertise to be used across the market.”
