Traveling with children, heaven or hell?

Nowadays, when most of the trips we make by bus are for Leisure, it is common to find ourselves on a journey with the most demanding passenger profile of all. That passenger who is looking for quality entertainment and to which not only the people traveling with him must adapt, but also the entire bus. We mean the children. Because offering a quality service to a child is sometimes quite a challenge.

Children: The decision makers of this generation.

While it is true that the most important aspect when traveling is safety , we tend to forget about entertainment . When we travel with children it is VERY important to take the right entertainment with us or else that trip can go from “The trip of our dreams” to “Welcome to your nightmare and that of those who travel with you”. Even as children, they are very clear about what they want to have on their trip, which is why it is increasingly common that, although it is the adults who choose the destination, the children are the ones who choose how to get there. New technologies have given voice to this passenger profile since in many cases they are in charge of looking in advance what the means of transport in which they are going to travel is going to offer them and how. If once on board the children's expectations are not met, it is very likely that the trip will become an odyssey for the rest of the passengers. If we also take into account that there is no escape on a bus... the challenge is served.

What must be considered?

As we do not know what tastes or needs the passengers that we are going to have on a specific day have, it is important to have a wide and varied offer of content to be able to choose and have hours of fun ahead, whether playing games, watching a movie, enjoying a series, listening to music or even reading a good book. Due to the high competition that exists in the world of transportation, operators increasingly invest more in improving the service for their passengers . They are no longer mere vehicles that take you from A to B, in addition to taking you they must include a quality offer of on-board entertainment so that the trip becomes an experience to repeat.

At Azimut we have been analyzing passenger profiles for years to improve our content offer and for this reason they have at least 20% children's content varied between movies and series . Even as not all children are the same and each year there is a huge difference between ages due to their rapid growth, on the one hand we have Baby-Friendly content, that is, content for children up to 3 years old and content for older children. Because children who are at such a young age tend to be the most difficult to please and not having entertainment for them poses a risk to the satisfaction of the rest of the passengers if, for example, they start crying.

I only take children on school routes, is this suitable for my service?

OF COURSE. A school bus with entertainment on board is a great point in favor of your service when it comes to generating new contacts, since you are investing in the satisfaction of your passengers and improving the image of both the school transport and the school in question. It is even a fantastic opportunity to put educational content such as interactive English courses.

To clarify this assumption let us see 2 examples. Of the 2 children below, which one is enjoying an added value that will increase their travel satisfaction?

1. A child who takes the bus to go to school and during the 30 minutes of the trip only has what he carries in his backpack to pass the time. Then, when he leaves class, he gets on the same bus doing the same route as the rest of the days.
2. A child who takes the bus to school and spends 30 minutes watching his favorite series on the screen behind the seat in front of him and playing games with his classmates. Then, when he leaves class, he already knows what he is going to want to see once he gets on the bus that is going to take him back home.

Which of the 2 children will arrive more motivated to class? Which of the 2 will return home with a more positive attitude?

Sometimes, we forget the details without thinking that they are what make a trip fantastic.

It is still not clear to me… Is it so necessary to invest in entertainment for children and, even more so, babies?

The answer is YES . Whenever there is the possibility of a child getting into one of our vehicles, it is VITAL to have an adequate content offer (including from the usability aspect). At Azimut we want to raise awareness of how disastrous it can be for a passenger to have a child crying for 6, 7 or 8 hours on a bus trip (I'm sure it's happened to more than one of us). We repeat. It is very easy to avoid these situations with a quality offer. If you have questions and want to know more about how we can help you, we are experts in on-board entertainment as we take care of our offer in detail so that you don't have to worry about a thing.

Ask for more information. You are one step away from improving the quality of your service to unsuspected limits!