A London open-top bus firm that marketed itself as the only operator in the City with a “live guide” has quietly sacked nearly all of its tour guides and replaced them with computers, City A.M. has learned.
Topview, a New York-based tourism firm with operations in London, laid off around 70 of its UK-based guide last week and has now rolled out recorded audio in their place, former staff told City A.M.
Until City A.M. approached the firm yesterday, it was still selling tickets to tourists at up to £55 for a day’s bus pass and touting itself as “the only hop-on hop-off bus with live guide in London”. The claim has since been removed from its website.
The layoffs have impacted around 30 full-time staff and 40 agency workers at the London open-top bus group, one former agency worker said.
“Their USP was every bus had a live guide, but they have just sacked more than 50 guides with days’ notice and left tourists with just computerised audio,” the former worker told City A.M.
“The tour is the most expensive in London at £55 a head. We are all so angry.”
In a letter sent to staff on the 30th April, general manager Adrian Carter said the company had made the decision to invest in a “multilingual audio system rather than stay with English only commentary”.
“The system currently offers a number of features that we believe will continue to provide the quality we require,” Carter wrote, adding that the company would maintain a “small team of guides who have been selected using a scoring criteria”.
“It is with regret therefore that I am writing to confirm notice to terminate your employment due to redundancy,” he added.
Staff were given seven days’ notice in line with their contracts, Topview said.
In a statement to City A.M, the company said it had received feedback from customers saying “they would like to see our tour commentary offered in different languages”.
“Consequently, we have recently launched audio commentary in 14 languages on our daytime sightseeing bus routes,” the firm said.
“We continue to provide live tour guides on our recently launched Night Tour as well as on all our walking tours as we believe the guides enhance customer experience for these products. Our website and printed materials have been updated accordingly to reflect this change.”