The student generation has grown up with the comfort that global mobilization provides today. The world is at their feet. Borders are no obstacle since the European Union. These young adult have grown up with holidays abroad. Now they have become independent students and still want to see more of the world. The young student traveler commands, according to Student Universe and Skift in the State of Student travel (2015), a market value of $320 billion dollars in the travel industry today. This shows the influence they have on the travel industry. The only thing holding them back is money. And this is why a popular trend has come up; traveling by bus.
Flixbus is a perfect example of a Micro trend that provides students, and anyone else, a low budget way of transport. Compared to €94,- for a train ticket from Amsterdam to paris, taking flixbus is only €25,-. Taking the bus will save you almost 70 euro’s. This shows why taking the bus has a great advantage for students and travelers on a strict budget. So what is Flixbus?
FlixBus is a young mobility provider that has been changing the way millions of people travel in Europe over the past 3 years. As a combination of tech-startup, e-commerce-platform and transportation company, FlixBus was able to establish Europe’s largest intercity bus network in the shortest amount of time. Since then around 50 million passengers have travelled with Flixbus (Flixbus, about us. 2015). With a record of 20 million passengers in 2015 alone. The bus company offers a connection between 900 destinations in 20 countries, and is growing almost daily. It started out in 2013 with only three founders and has grown to an international team of nearly 1,000 employees throughout Munich, Berlin, Paris, Milan and Zagreb. As well as thousands of partner’s bus drivers from all over Europe, stand behind the green mobility provider.
This service has shown enormous growth within just three years of existence. Flixbus is a mirco trend because of the service that they provide. And the brand that it’s linked to. Similar to Flixbus other bus companies have also started to follow this trend and provide the same service. Examples are Megabus, Studentagency and Ouibus. There is even a website called Busradar (Busradar.com) where you can search all these bus agencies to find your desired ride to your destination. All these micro trends come from the meso trend of finding new sustainable, comfortable and affordable ways of traveling. The even bigger mega trend in the society is the trend of Globalization. The world is becoming easier to cross with the ever growing and changing technology.
Flixbus is in stage 3 of it’s trend life cycle; the early majority. With already 50 million passengers in just three years it has shown great growth. And this trend is still growing. Jochen Engert, FlixBus founder and managing director: “Not only by expanding our network all over Europe, but also by improving our green product, we’ve developed new target groups. In 2016, we expect a 50% growth on last year’s passenger volume. The European mobility market is still highly competitive but FlixBus has already changed the way people travel.” At the beginning of this year, FlixBus announced its expansion towards Central and Eastern Europe (CEE region). A few weeks ago, the startup launched its first connections in Croatia and Slovenia.
Flixbus is only very realistic in Europe, since everything is considerably close to each other. I predict that at one point the bus company won’t be able to expand any further and start to receive a downfall in numbers. Do you agree?
Reference list:
Flixbus.com. (2015). About us. Retrieved on Thursday 15th of september at:
Busradar.com. (2016). Buscompanies. Retrieved on Thursday 15th of september at:
The Economist. (October, 2015). Revolution on wheels. Retrieved on Thursday 15th of september at:
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21676815-options-passengers-are-multiplying-revolution-wheels
Skalleberg, A. (2014). The State of Student Travel. Retrieved on Thursday 15th of september at:
Trends and Brands block A 16-17 
I think you chose a good topic to write about. I can agree with you that that Flix bus is indeed a micro trend. The first question that popped up was: Isn’t this type of traveling with a bus a step backwards when it comes to environmental friendliness? But I was wrong. This is indeed one of the more environmental friendly ways of traveling, even compared with traveling by the train. On their website it is one of the things they focus on a lot. Apart from Flix bus making traveling more environmental friendly, you as user can also help. With every travel u make there is an option to donate 1-3% of your traveling costs to climate projects. (Flix, 2016)
I can also agree with you that at some point the bus cant expand any further at some point. Simply because the destinations will just be to far. I think this concept will somehow work with traveling by plane. Of course u can already book last minute flights, but it could be easier and cheaper. For example ordering tickets trough apps like the Flix bus. Some companies are already providing these kinds of apps but it isn’t a trend like the Flix bus yet.
Thomas de Gilder
1645664
Bibliography
Flix. (2016, september 16). Sustainability. Retrieved september 16, 2016, from http://www.flixbus.com: https://www.flixbus.com/company/sustainability
LikeLike
Hi!
What an awesome subject you chose. I had no clue something like this existed. When i looked in to the flixbus it surprised me what you said is true. It actually is more eco friendly than traveling by car or train. They even have this project where they sponsor windmills in Aruba! (Flix, 2016).
Now talking about your question “At one point the bus company won’t be able to expand any further and start to receive a downfall in numbers.”
Of course at one moment they can’t expend any further. Or at least, if you want to you can go by bus to China, but you have to consider if people would be willing to sit in a bus for a week. But will they have a downfall in numbers? i don’t think so. I believe because it is such a up to date company they will definitely find something new to travel cheap even outside Europe.
But, if we take students as a target group, i’m not even sure if Flixbus is the best options. Students usually don’t really take account off high season, when it comes to holidays. So the money than is not really a big issue. I searched for an example. Fly from Eindhoven to Copenhagen in May for 25 euro’s! (Transavia) So I don’t believe that they should worry about the distance they can conquer, but more about the prices.
If i look at myself i think i wouldn’t go with the Flixbus. I don’t like sitting on the bus that long (i get sick). Not even just the bus, but being on the road for so long i think is terrible, and probably other people feel this way. Don’t you guys think that you’ll get road sick?
Emmie van de Bunt 1661186
Transavia. (2016). Boek uw vlucht! Consulted on 16-9-2016 off
https://www.transavia.com/nl-NL/boek-een-vlucht/vluchten/zoeken/
Flix. (2016). Consulted on 16-9-2016 off https://www.flixbus.nl/over-ons/duurzaamheid/
LikeLike
Hi,
As someone who has traveled with a bus company like Flixbus I totally agree with the fact that it is a trend. A few years ago I hadn’t thought about it, now I have made several trips with it. Like you said it works because Europe has all these countries close to each other. When I was visiting Budapest we did a day trip to Vienna and when living in Copenhagen we went to Berlin for a few days. It also helps that no visa’s and passports are needed when traveling through the EU.
I don’t think however that it’s going to replace a flight that often. I agree that plane tickets are of more expensive but it cost a lot of time to drive from the Netherlands to Latvia for example, and this costs money as well. The people I know are buying plane tickets to the other side of Europe and then travel around there by bus.
I agree with you that traveling by bus, or in this case Flixbus, is a micro trend. Consumers have a need for traveling cheap and see much (meso trend). Traveling by bus makes this possible. I also agree with you on saying that the trend is in stage 3 of the lifecycle; early majority. The general public is using busses to travel however when I tell people I travel by bus through Europe they sometimes think it’s a bit strange. This means it is not normal yet, and the norm on how to travel has yet to changed. I think this will happen when the trend reaches stage 4.
As for your question, I don’t know if I agree. When traveling to the East (Asia) not all the countries are that far apart and I think busses will be able to drive these parts however, some countries you can’t drive through because of laws and others are to far and people will buy a plane ticket at the end of the day. But don’t you think a certain group of people will see some kind of adventure in traveling by bus through these countries? Do you think this group is big enough to make it possible for the bus companies to expand?
Merle Veurman 1636541
LikeLike
Hi Janaki,
I think the lifecycle you describe is right. We all want to travel and see more of the world and we like to travel as much comfortable as it can be. And the Dutch even like it more when it is a cheap journey with good quality. From these needs arises the many bus, fly and boat companies who offer their journeys.
To answer your question: Do I agree with your statement that the bus company won’t be able to expand any further and start to receive downfall in numbers.
I don’t think that Flixbus need to expand because they’re already offering tours in Europe. If you want to go outside Europe, I think the during of the journey is way too long. Even if the seats in the bus are comfortable, you’ll always be faster with an airplane. So I don’t think there is enough demand for this. But I think Flixbus can expand the environmental friendly area. There aren’t many other bus companies that focuses on the environment. Solmar Tours and Slangenreizen are only promoted with beneficial, cheap and a good price for a good trip. (Solmar Tours, n.d.) (Slangenreizen, n.d.) Only Kras is offering accommodations with the Green Globe Certification and focuses on durability. (Green Globe, 2016)
Most of the Dutch are worried about the environment. However this is not a guarantee for environmental friendly behavior. Thresholds for this behavior are lack of knowledge, the effort and costs. Environmental friendly products are found expensive. (Verbeek & Boelhouwer, 2010) So, I think when Flixbus spreads the message more and more (who they are and why they are environmental friendly) because I didn’t know about this bus company, there won’t be a downfall in numbers but maybe a rise in numbers. Did you already know about Flixbus before you wrote this article?
Reference list:
Green Globe. (2016). Green Globe Certification. Retrieved from http://greenglobe.com/green-globe-certification/
Van Rijn, M., & Van der Burgt, R. (n.d.). Gebeurtenissen in een onzekere wereld [E-book]. Retrieved from http://www.ivto.org/publicaties/hoofdstuk-1-gebeurtenissen-in-een-onzekere-wereld-handboek-scenarioplanning
Slangenreizen. (n.d.). Over Slangenreizen. Retrieved from https://www.slangenreizen.nl/over-ons/
Solmar Tours. (n.d.). Over Solmar. Retrieved from https://solmar.nl/over-solmar/over-solmar-tours.htm
Verbeek, D., & Boelhouwer, J. (2010). Milieu van laters, wiens zorg nu? Retrieved from https://www.cbs.nl/NR/rdonlyres/BE4E21C2-84F1-430F-9956-B075F04C3614/0/Milieuvanlaterwienszorgvannu.pdf
LikeLike