During the trip, Radim Jancura, founder, owner and CEO of Regiojet, found time for an exclusive interview with TourPressClub.
Mr. Jančura, thank you very much for speaking with us. Can you tell us about the history of your company and its activities?
RJ:
RegioJet was founded in 2009, but the entire story started in 1993. As a student I founded an agency mediating au-pair stays for students from the Czech Republic.
In 1996, I established the company called The STUDENT AGENCY and hired its first employees, many of whom are still with the company.
The STUDENT AGENCY group focuses on a wide portfolio of services – we are a leading seller of flight tickets and package holidays, and also the largest agency selling language and work stays abroad. Moreover, we are the most successful private bus and train operating company. The RegioJet brand is used for domestic and international bus transport. Yellow buses interconnect Prague and Brno with tens of towns and cities in the Czech Republic.
Our yellow buses operate international lines as well – Germany, Austria, Italy, and Hungary. Yellow lines offer not only transport to centres of European cities, but also attractive connections to airports in countries neighbouring with the Czech Republic (e.g. Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, and Frankfurt).
Similar to yellow buses on roads, yellow Regiojet trains brought about a revolution on rails. Our company philosophy is to provide customers with the best possible services at great prices.
What goals were you pursuing with the introduction of the train lines to Croatia?
RJ:
Historically, Croatia has always been a number one destination for Czechs in the summer. Croatia is a destination associated with family holidays. We wanted to create an affordable and convenient offer for everyone who would like to travel to this sunny destination.
Last year, our yellow trains transported tens of thousands of Czechs to sunny Rijeka in Croatia. And because interest was so high, we are now sending our trains again, but this time even further. This year we are taking passengers to Split with connecting buses taking people across the Adriatic or as far as Montenegro.
We are happy that we can follow last year’s success when we created an attractive and safe offer for tourists travelling between Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. We have been very happy that together with the average occupancy reaching more than 90%, the whole project also brought a profitable result.
I can attribute our success to the committed work of employees of Regiojet – many of whom have been with the company for 20 years.
Have you ever imagined that your company would be so successful?
RJ:
It was my dream that Regiojet would be the most well-known Czech company in Europe. The Western European state operators of trains are very nice but they don’t offer much besides the seating. I am proud to hear when travellers from Western European countries are wowed by the offerings we have, such as free coffee with comfortable seating and great prices.
In my opinion, travelling from one place to another is boring, so we try to have good entertainment and good catering, where people actually feel excited about the journey. The main idea was always to give that feeling to our travellers where time passes quickly and the journey is pleasant.
For us it is very important to have full occupancy but also good service. We have healthy and fresh catering products on our lines at affordable prices.
The most amazing success is when you become a preferred company.
Where do you like to travel?
RJ:
Usually I spend my holidays in my cottage in Beskydy in the Czech Republic. I love the mountain air so during the summer it is great to be there.
In winter, I love going to Zanzibar which is also very popular amongst Czechs.
