Milano, 04.05.2020. It is now available online the latest issue of the “Italian Long-Distance Coach Transport Market Report”. Published thanks to the agreement between TRASPOL and the search-engine Checkmybus.it, the new annual report provides an overview of the last three years, investigating the evolution of the market from 2017 to 2020. 2020 has undoubtedly been a year “out of the ordinary ”, this report also aims to highlight how the COVID-19 epidemic has had an impact on long-distance bus transport in Italy.

The report is based on the sample of prices collected by the sales platform and describes the profile of bus users, the prices charged, the main domestic routes and the most requested locations, with a specific focus on inter-regional airport connections.

• The price index was slightly higher in January (when everything was normal) than the previous year, but the real price increase was observed once travel resumed after the long lockdown in early June when interregional travel has been allowed and demand has resumed. Considering only the second half of the year, the price index grew by more than 50% compared to the second half of 2019 (but not doubled, despite the halving of capacity).

• The previous years of monitoring (2017-2019) have always shown a higher percentage of female users (the average is 55%). However, the year 2020 saw an almost equal proportion of men and women. The age group of young people (18 – 24 years) increased by 6% in 2020, while that of 35-44 years and > 44 years decreased by 3% and 5% respectively. It may be that smart working and especially online meetings have reduced travel for 35-44 years and the decrease of > 44 could be due to the perception of the risk of contagion traveling by bus.
• Among the 10 most popular routes in the second half of 2020, the 4 connections with Calabria (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania and Emilia Romagna) stand out. There are three internal routes in the South and three between the Center and the South in the Top 10. The most searched routes are between Lazio and Abruzzo (11%) and Campania and Abruzzo (6%).
• Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin and Bologna have maintained the first places that concentrate travel requests at a national level. The next part of the ranking sees more variation, with some airports gaining interest (MXP, FCO) and some smaller cities with an explosion of requests that leads them to be included in the Top 15 (Chieti, Giulianova) at the expense of others. larger (Palermo and Taranto which were expelled from the list).
• The trend of the unit price as a function of the distance of the relationship mostly follows the usual trend, the only change is the overall increase in the price index for all distance ranges. The greatest growth is observed for distances of less than 100 km (25% compared to 2019). For the year 2020, the drop in the price index for <100km and 100-200km is much higher than in previous years (-100%), while for 2019 it was -50%.
• For the first half of 2020, the trend pf price index for the companies was the usual one (lower prices for larger companies than smaller ones). With the relaxation of restrictions and the resuming of travel in the second half of 2020, it is interesting to observe a reversal of the trend for the first time: the main companies have increased prices in the summer months, surpassing those of smaller companies.

TRASPOL REPORT 2/21: Italian Long-Distance Coach Transport Market Report | Year 2020