ABA Sees 62% Increase In Business Spurred By Convention

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Bus Association (ABA) on June 20 released the booked business results from its 2017 Annual Meeting & Marketplace in Cleveland, Jan. 13-17, which will result in more than $115.9 million in business.

The John Dunham and Associates (JDA) survey results indicate that $115.9 million in business will be booked as a direct result of Marketplace. This is a 62% increase in business generated from Marketplace 2016 and the second largest total business booked from the show in the past five years.

The average total business booked due to Marketplace was up dramatically in 2017, with the average business booked on the floor of $21,110 nearly double that of 2016, according to the JDA annual post-event survey of delegates. They included about 3,300 participants representing 1,450 companies and organizations ranging from motorcoach operators to destination marketing organizations to hotels.

This included a number of sales of new motorcoaches to operators that were made on the trade floor. The survey also showed the average amount of business booked per company that booked business because of Marketplace was $107,741.

“These results show that ABA’s Annual Meeting & Marketplace is the number one group travel show in North America with the greatest ROI,” said ABA President & CEO Peter Pantuso, CTIS. “This is where you want to come if you want to kick off your business year on the right foot – it is where real business gets done.”

The 2018 ABA Annual Meeting & Marketplace will be held in Charlotte, N.C., Jan. 26-30, 2018. Registration is open with early bird discounts available. Informatioin: http://ift.tt/2sKd0h6.

About the Survey
The ABA commissioned JDA to estimate the amount of business booked at its Marketplace 2017 event. Data on the amount of business generated through Marketplace 2017 were derived from the survey questions, and were broken out by three categories: Business booked at Marketplace 2017, business booked following Marketplace 2017, and the additional anticipated business not yet booked that the respondents expected to generate because of Marketplace 2017 contacts. The results were then checked for consistency, and then aggregated with the results of the model.

About the American Bus Association
The American Bus Association (ABA) is the trade organization of the intercity bus industry with more than 1,000 motorcoach and tour company members in the U.S. and Canada. Its members operate charter, tour, regular route, airport express, special operations and contract services. Another 2,800 members are travel and tourism organizations and suppliers of bus products and services who partner with the North American motorcoach industry.
Information: http://www.buses.org

Source: ABA press release

Keywords

American Bus Association   charter and tour operators   investment   meetings and conventions   motorcoach operators   

 

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Family Business Becomes Millennial’s Passion

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Chauffeured transportation might not be the first answer you hear when you ask Millennials what industries interest them. Be that as it may, many family-owned companies have influenced their children and gotten them involved.

Nick Boccio, fleet manager for Buffalo Limousine, was never pressured by his mother and father to join the team, but he’s taken on his role in the business with excitement and a desire to constantly improve.

Team Family

When first starting at Buffalo Limousine, it didn’t take long for Boccio to learn the success of limousine operations is extremely reliant on the people involved.

“I would advise a young operator to find a mentor; mine is my mother, Carla,” Boccio says. “She has great business acumen and always sets me in the right direction. If I started my own company, she would be my consultant.” 

“Our staff is excellent top to bottom. My dad Frank handles all aspects of the chauffeurs, my mother handles all office matters, I deal with the fleet, and my Aunt Julie does our billing. Our chauffeurs are top notch, our reservationists are excellent, and our detailers are outstanding. It’s a team effort and that is what we excel at.”

The business started in 1960 when Boccio’s grandmother received a call from a local concert promoter. A musician requested some limousines, and Boccio’s grandfather rented out some of his funeral limousines to him, and Buffalo Limousine began chauffeured services. “We are unique because we are in our third generation. I feel that’s outstanding for any business,” Boccio says.

As a teenager, he wasn’t especially interested in joining the team. “When you’re 18 or 19, it’s hard to commit to something like diving right into the family business,” he says.

Fancy Fleet

The company’s fleet is Boccio’s pride and joy, since he started off in the garage washing cars for a couple of summers and really enjoyed it. They have 19 vehicles, including Lincoln Continentals, S550s, and MKTs.

“We’ll begin phasing out our MKTs for Continentals at the end of this year and/or early next year,” he explains.

Their SUVs include Yukon XLs and Suburbans. A few years ago, they switched from traditional stretch limousines to limo buses. They have three Turtle Top buses (another long standing family business, he adds), one Sprinter from First Class Customs, and a Grech Motors executive bus.

“The emphasis on sedans and SUVs keeps us busy even in the slower part of the year, and the mix of executive buses and limousine style buses also allow for versatility,” Boccio says. “These vehicles represent the type of company we are and the clientele we serve.”

His advises other operators to find a good mechanic to keep a fleet ready to roll. “Maintenance has to be the most dependable part of an operation,” he says. “If my uncle wasn’t the best mechanic around, we would have given up a lot of trips over the years due to maintenance issues.”

Attracting Young Talent

Boccio believes the chauffeured transportation industry could attract Millennial employees by attending job fairs at universities. “There are plenty of Millennials who’d likely be interested in working for the bigger firms in our industry, but perhaps have never thought of it because they don’t know anything about it.”

As for what the future holds for himself and Buffalo Limousine, he says he has many ideas to advance the company. When asked about his biggest success, graduating from John Carroll University in Cleveland with his bachelor’s degree in accountancy tops the list. “I’m only 23, so it’s likely this answer will change if you asked me in 10 years,” he says.

Keywords

family businesses   LCTFast40   Millennials   New York operators   WebXclusive   

 

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