Area tourism businesses get advice on tours

Customer service is the key to tourism success, speaker says.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Organization, planning and attention to detail are the keys to accommodating group bus tours, a tourism expert said here Wednesday.

“You need to make sure customer service is key,” said Celeste M. Krolak, a tour marketing specialist with the Ohio Department of Development.

Krolak was the main speaker at a workshop attended by several dozen local restaurateurs, hoteliers and tourist attraction directors from Lawrence, Mercer, Mahoning, Trumbull, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

The workshop, sponsored by the Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau, was at the Davis Education and Visitors Center at Mill Creek Park’s Fellows Riverside Gardens.

“Customer service starts the minute you make the contact with the tour operator,” Krolak said. “Make sure you’re aware of what they need done.”

Staff must be prepared and eager to greet the arriving bus tour and adhere to the tour’s schedule, she said. “If you want the business, make sure your staff wants the business too. Make sure they’re ready.”.

Details, such as room types and locations and bed configurations in hotel guest rooms should be arranged in advance, she said. Room key cards should be ready for distribution to guests upon their arrival, she added.

The hotel manager should board the arriving bus to welcome the group, and hotels should have an opening reception for the group while luggage is being delivered to the guest rooms, she said. If possible, the bus should be permitted to park on the premises for easy access, she said.

The details

Restaurateurs need to ascertain in advance that restrooms are clean and stocked with sufficient soap, paper towels and toilet paper for the group, she said. Water and salads should be preset on the tables shortly before the group’s scheduled arrival, she added.

“The success is in the details,” said Phil Moore, Mahoning County CVB director. “That’s what provides either a good or bad experience for them,” he said of group tour participants.

“To the degree that the details are worked out, where this is a smooth, comfortable experience for the people as part of that group, that’s what’s going to bring them back,” and generate a positive word-of-mouth reputation for this region, he said.