Hilton's headporter backs tours application
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• Because of the steady increase in foreign tourists visiting the UK and because Evan Evans Ltd is gearing itself to meet their demands, the firm applied on Tuesday to vary its existing evening tours from The Colonnade, London WC1, to take in Chelsea and to add five additional tours to an already extensive programme.
Other London tour operators objected, however, and reasons why the application should not be granted were put forward by Grey Green Coaches Ltd, Frames Tours Ltd, Orange Luxury Coaches Ltd, Chas Rickards (Tours) Ltd, LTE London Country Bus Services Ltd, World Wide Coaches Ltd and Valliant Cronshaw Ltd.
The application included a tour to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, a two-day tour to York and a half-day tour to Hampton Court, which differed to the Hampton Court tours already operated by Evan Evans and the objectors in so far as it visited only Hampton Court, allowing a longer stay, and did not include the usual extra of Windsor or Kew Gardens. The application was heard by the chairman of the Metropolitan Traffic Comthissioners, Mr D. I. R. Muir, and was continued when going to press.
In evidence, Mr M. Barr, chairman of Evan Evans and also chairman of the Wallace Arnold group of companies, said that a check in May and the first two weeks in June on passengers travelling on 50 different departures had shown that not one held a UK passport. He said that the overseas market was one which had to be gone for very deliberately or left completely alone. He substantiated this by giving details of certain "workshop" conferences held throughout the world at which tour operators met the host countries tour booking agents; a recent one in Chicago had cost Evan Evans £3000.
He explained that there was already a network of booking agents working on behalf of Evan Evans throughout the world, ranging from over 400 in the USA to seven in Argentina, two in Japan and one each in Turkey and the Canary Isles. There were many in Britain, he said, including porters at many hotels who acted as part-time agents. Letters from two of them, one being from the headporter of the London Hilton, were submitted in support of the application.
Mr F. D. Walker, representing Evan Evans. claimed the tours applied for were markedly different from those operated by most of the objectors; its reason for wanting the additional tours was to cater for those tourists who return to the UK for a subsequent visit. They were aimed specifically at the overseas market and the cost would be all-inclusive.
Mr Barr said that last year Evan Evans was forced to sub-contract because it only had 16 vehicles suitable for tour work, the rest being semi-utilized-type vehicles suitable only for works services. Evan Evans now has a fleet of 30 touring-class vehicles.