OUR STORY
"OUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT IS THE SIMPLE FACT THAT OUR BUS PROGRAMS BECOME A MAJOR PROFIT CENTER FOR THE CASINO."
We began Casino Tours in 1996, to fill what we had determined was a need in Casino Group Sales. With multiple casinos competing in the Chicago land and Northwest Indiana area, we recognized a need for a casino bus partner rather than another bus company picking up the casino’s players on street corners. We wanted to develop a casino motor coach marketing company that would not only provide transportation but would work to create its own customer base.
Our first client was the riverboat, Showboat Casino in East Chicago Indiana, a casino with approximately 2200 gaming positions. Casino Tours created marketing and promotional strategies to build the riders emotional attachment to the bus service as well as the casino property. Bus depots providing multiple daily runs, seven days per week, were opened offering refreshments and televisions in a comfortable seating area. The East Chicago casino property was purchased by Harrah’s Gaming who sought to implement their celebrated affinity card tracking program.
Working with Harrah’s marketing team, we grew their group sales program to consistently bus up to 30,000 players per month, in a competitive market, while tracking at unprecedented levels. It became one of the most profitable casino bus programs in the country, one that Harrah’s described as “the premier bus program west of Atlantic City.”*
Casino Tours later contracted with Boyd’s Sam Town in Tunica, Mississippi and The Seminole Tribe in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to design and develop line run bus programs. In 2007, we contracted with the newly built land-based casino, Four Winds Casino and Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan to develop and manage their group sales program. (Visit our website at www.fourwindscasinoshuttle.com) In our first year we averaged over 20,000 passengers per month and again tracking at record levels.
We evolved into a group sales, marketing and management company. We work in sync with the Casino to design and execute a plan that will drive revenues, maximize productivity, and reduce costs, thereby giving the Casino a bus program that is a profitable extension of their brand. We regularly meet with casino marketing and finance executives to analyze individual tracking data, revenues, costs and profitability. By contracting with Casino Shuttle, the Casino will have a partner with knowledge of both the Casino business and the motor coach industry, and a partner that is motivated to grow your market, professionalize your program, and with an understanding of the Casino’s need to secure a favorable return on investment.
Casino Tours currently contracts with casinos in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, California and Tijuana, Mexico for a variety of services which include consulting, program growth and development, providing sales and marketing or to manage the casino’s group sales program.
What makes Casino Tours unique is the partnership we have with the casinos. Our proudest achievement is the simple fact that our bus programs become a major profit center for the casino.
* from Harrahs “Jackpot” by Robert L. Shook
