Edinburgh Bus Tours is part of the Lothian Group and has had a revamp for the 2024 summer season in the Scottish capital. Richard Walter speaks to the management team to find out why, and tries out the new Regal Tour which offers some alternative attractions to the Castle and Old Town.
Lothian’s City Sightseeing Edinburgh tour recently received the Best Tour Operator Worldwide award from City Sightseeing. With the Scottish capital having always excelled in providing quality open-top bus tours, I wondered just what winning this accolade had meant. Sarah Taylor, Communications Manager for Lothian, explained that the tour’s operation is a team effort.
“David Cameron is our Head of Operations, Dylan Dastey is our Chief Engineer, Elaine Green is the Sales Manager, Paul Baxter is our Depot Engineer at Marine garage (where buses are kept), David Spalding is the Traffic Manager and we also have a General Manager who is off on maternity leave until June,” she explained. “The marketing and new liveries for this season were all done by my team and I am very proud of them. Our Director team is also heavily involved in Edinburgh Bus Tours’ summer plans too.
“We were absolutely thrilled to have been named Best Tour Operator Worldwide by City Sightseeing. City Sightseeing Edinburgh has been part of the city’s tourism fabric for the past two decades. The brand is the benchmark for quality open-top bus tours around the world. We’re so incredibly proud of the entire Edinburgh Bus Tours team. It means the world to them; our team works tirelessly with passion and dedication to deliver five-star customer service each and every day.”
Tour changes
2024 has seen a revamp of Edinburgh Bus Tours’ three principal routes and the loss of the Bus & Boat Tour taking in the three Forth bridges. The company now offers the City Sightseeing Edinburgh Tour (including multi-lingual audio guide, also featuring a ‘Horrible Histories’ children’s commentary), the Edinburgh Tour (live guided in English and covering both the Old Town and Georgian New Town) and the multi-lingual Regal Tour which takes in the city’s Botanic Garden and the Royal Yacht Britannia.
I asked what the reasons were for the changes and how they would benefit passengers? “Last year we retained our five-star Quality Assurance status from Visit Scotland,” Sarah explained. “We strive for continual improvement by assessing our offering and seeing where improvements can be made to enhance our customers’ experience on our services. For 2024 this meant revamping our three signature city centre tours with eye-catching branding to inspire a fresh perspective of our tours and capture the imagination of returning and first-time visitors to our city.”
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