Eurostar is to step up its marketing strategy after research found that 82% of its customers have travelled on its trains only once.
Speaking at this week’s ABTA Travel Matters Conference in London, CEO Mike Cooper said the statistic was both ‘frightening and embarrassing’ for the rail operator.
He said it would now be working hard to ensure that people don’t just ‘discover’ the cross-Channel service but ‘rediscover’ it.
He said Eurostar has seen particular growth from the Asian and north American markets but the French-UK market has dropped in recent years.
He said the company was well placed to become an expert in the cities its trains serve.
While it’s not possible for the likes of Google or Expedia to ‘own’ 100 destinations, he said, it was ‘absolutely possible for us to say that we understand and are passionate about four or five cities, not just in terms of the Eurostar journey but beyond that’.
Cooper said he was ‘generally pretty positive’ about business which had ‘bounced back’ since its services had been disrupted during industrial action by customs officials at French stations.
He said there was significant opportunities for Eurostar to tap into the Dutch market since launching Amsterdam services.
But he admitted there were still issues with return journeys from Amsterdam to the UK due to requirements that all London-bound passengers disembark at Brussels Midi for immigration and customs clearance, adding to the journey time.
Cooper said he hopes these problems would be resolved by the end of this year, prompting Eurostar to seek a fifth daily service.
