Best Tours and Travel
Photos courtesy of Best Tours and Travel Best Tours and Travel traces its heritage back 43 years when Nick Sayah founded a boutique travel agency specializing in tours. As the company flourished, it expanded by buying buses and becoming a bus operator. Since reopening, the company has experienced sellout tours.
C
alifornia’s Best Tours & Travel reopens strong after a tireless 2020 keeping customers, lawmakers and a changing traveling public close to its business
Best Tours & Travel’s recent reopening saw sellout tours and a continuing recovery in their private charter operations thanks to nonstop outreach throughout 2020s shutdown months that continues today.
With COVID-19, the Fresno, California motorcoach company faced the rockiest road ever in its 43-year history. A successful community outreach program has rebuilt customer confidence, and a brand relaunch featuring safe leisure tour packages is now attracting riders from every demographic. Working throughout the pandemic with staff intact, Best Tours & Travel was prepared to rise quickly when statewide restrictions ended in June.
And it has. Jasmine Sayah, director of operations and next-generation leadership of the company founded by her parents, credits constant communication during lockdown. A big social media push during shutdown helped win back existing customers and attract new ones. “Our private charter business started coming back in the spring of 2021 when California opened up. Many of the tours sold out
20 • National Bus Trader / October, 2021
within 20 days of opening.” Charter capacity now stands at 100 percent with all of its 10 motorcoaches on the road in use.
Even after 23 years of experience in her family business, Sayah did not anticipate the COVID-19 shutdown’s impact on staff, families and the community. “Everything came to a standstill. We refunded everyone and were hit hard with deep revenue loss in 2020,” she said. “We filed for SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program and sold our oldest equipment which helped keep staff and their benefits in place.”
Today, they are ready to hire new team members. “We see opportunity and want to hire and train new drivers and technicians,” she said.
Travel that puts health and safety first During lockdown and even today, Best Tours’ staff spent many hours on Zoom and telephone calls with buyers at corporations, colleges and national parks offering updates on the care and operations of its coach fleet including the latest sanitizing practices and safety mandates. Sayah said, “We know that COVID-19 will always be the first thing on passengers’ and clients’ minds before making a travel commitment for some time. By requiring that all passengers wear masks now,
our riders can feel at ease and have confidence in the ability to travel by motorcoach.” The company will continue to provide hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes onboard.
On most trips, passengers are allowed to pick their seats so groups get the kind of travel experience they are comfortable with. “We are seeing some smaller groups of 30 or less still wanting a 56-passenger coach, and that is fine. We can accommodate most requests.”
Tours for every taste As the economy reopens, domestic leisure travel leads business travel nationwide as families reunite and vacation plans return. That is great news for Best Tours & Travel, which creates one-of-a-kind trips from one-day outings to overnight stays at popular destinations. “Our tours are guided and we always have a hostess onboard,” says Sayah, who often plans the trips herself and polls customers to learn their preferences. “We take the tour beforehand so we know the exact itinerary we want to promote. If it’s good for me, I am confident it will be enjoyed by others.” Reminding travelers about the advantages of motorcoach travel With safety precautions in place, Sayah thinks it is time to restart the discussion about
