Call for Candidates: Awards for bus operation and coach tourism policy

Winners will be awarded in three categories: transport companies for regular urban or inter-urban public transport by bus and coach, municipal authorities for activities fostering group tourism by coach as well as transport companies for group tourism by coach.

The calls addresses public and private candidates for three global awards for innovation, best practices and excellence in bus operation and coach tourism policy. The International Road Transport (IRU) launched the call for candidates for the IRU City Trophy 2011, the IRU Bus Excellence Award 2011 and the new IRU Coach Tourism Innovation Award 2011 in the framework of the global Smart Move campaign. Smart Move is a joint industry initiative to promote a greater use of buses and coaches worldwide.

Vice President of the IRU and President of the IRU Passenger Transport Council (CTP), Graham Smith, said, “With these three awards, we aim at gathering and spreading excellence amongst our sector and policy decision makers at all levels to meet the increasing demand for sustainable passenger transport, while making bus and coach services more user-friendly as an incentive for the public to use them.”

The three awards in detail:

• The Bus Excellence Award rewards transport companies active in regular urban or inter-urban public transport by bus and coach. This Award aims to promote greater use of bus and coach in regular urban and inter-urban transport, through high quality and cost-effective innovative projects.
• The City Trophy Award recognises and rewards municipal authorities that implement policies favouring group tourism by coach, and to encourage other cities to follow their example. Cities that invest in good facilities for coaches will reap economic rewards, while those that fail to do so will limit their income from tourism.
• The Coach Tourism Innovation Award is given to transport companies active in group tourism by coach in any country, to recognise and promote industry practices leading to a greater use of group tourism by coach, through high quality and cost-effective innovative projects and services.

Applications are reviewed by an international jury composed of transport policy-makers, leading tourism and travel business representatives, international organisations, city councils and coach transport professionals.

Company and city candidates must submit their application dossiers in English or French to the IRU Permanent Delegation to the EU by mail, fax at +32-2-743 25 99 or by e-mail at christina.grimme@iru.org by 15 June 2011 at the latest, specifying to which IRU Award they apply.