Mr Hirsch, the family company Hirsch-Reisen, founded by your father Heinold Hirsch in 1948, which you now run together with your brother Mathias, has been a loyal customer of Setra for around 60 years and has acquired 73 of our coaches over the course of its history. What brought about such long-term loyalty to the Setra brand, which continues to this day?

It was in 1963 that my father purchased his first Setra, an S 12. The first trips he ran at that time were to Paris and Italy. Every two years or a new Setra arrived – then later, as the fleet grew, it was several coaches per year. As for me, during my training to become a vehicle mechanic in 1982, I did an internship with Setra in Ulm. I learnt a lot there about how these buses are made. This experience connects me with the Setra brand. But of course, economic considerations play the main role in our decision to go for Setra buses. We are a cost-conscious company and have worked out that we can be very efficient on the road with Setra coaches thanks to their reliability and good value retention. No small credit is due to the local brand representatives, their engagement and personality, and the trusting relationship they create. For family companies like Hirsch-Reisen, a personal relationship is important. What with our confidence in the brand, the good support and high-quality, economic products, we have only ever bought Setra buses since the 1990s: it’s just the best choice for us.

What makes a good coach?

Reliability and safety. A bus has to run reliably. At the same time, the active and passive safety of the vehicle is essential. Specifically here, Setra has been in the lead for years – avant-garde, one might even say. This is true both in terms of electronic systems such as the emergency braking system ABA 4, the lane assistant or proximity control system, and also with regard to the passive protection for drivers and passengers offered, for example, by the front collision guard integrated in the frame. But the most important thing in a good coach is the air conditioning. Here, Setra has expended much effort on creating a high-quality, draught-free atmosphere with only one degree of temperature difference between the front and the back.

In your view, how has coach travel changed over the past few decades?

Looking back, sadly I have to say that we are still fighting to improve the image of coach travel. The sector still has not managed to promote a positive, high-quality image. Only the rise of long-distance coach travel and the connected publicity work by big providers managed to present coach travel to the public, politicians and media in a way that excited them. This has created a consciousness of coaches as an environmentally-friendly mode of transport, bringing you safely and comfortably from A to B. In addition, you get to talk with your fellow passengers about your shared experience. This is something that doesn’t happen to the same extent for lone travellers. The sense of community, the exchange, getting to know other people is an important part of coach travel. Cultural coach trips expands horizons and contributes to good social relations. 

So coach travel is important for society?

Of course. It is a social responsibility to make the “omnibus” – the word comes from the Latin for “for all” – attractive to everyone, because it is an outstanding vehicle that lets you expand your horizons as part of a manageable group. Not mass tourism, but a healthy mix of people who, out of shared interest, want to experience something new, to learn something. Cultural trips make an important contribution to education, mutual understanding between people, social harmony and human happiness. It really is true: our guests are happy when they come back from a trip. 

What does the future of coach travel look like?

The coronavirus pandemic has slammed the brakes on the whole sector and it will take years before normality returns. At the same time, the travel industry has been exemplary during the pandemic in bringing passengers home and returning deposits, for example. This is something individual travellers by car or air who booked their accommodation online were unable to rely on. Nevertheless, this group will continue to play a major role in the travel market in the future. But also virtual travel – with virtual reality headsets in your own living room – will also start to compete more and more with coach travel. But at great ecological cost, I have to say, as the internet needs enormous amounts of energy. Overall, the climate crisis and experience from the pandemic has tended to play into the hands of coach travel operators. The recognition that buses and coaches are much more environmentally friendly than planes, that you don’t have to travel to distant lands but can also look out somewhere to visit in Germany, both play a role, as does the need for shared experience with other people after all the limitations on social contact. Precisely because of its sustainability and social aspect, I can see a future in the market for cultural coach trips.