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Banquet better than pub tour
Page 41
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• The appetite of American tourists for seeing old England is to be further satisfied by the grant on Tuesday of an excursion and tours licence to Sightseeing International Ltd., of Ealing, London, for a tour from Paddington to "Great Fosters", Egham, Surrey, for passengers to participate in a medieval-style banquet in the tithe barn there. The licence was for an evening tour for a maximum of four coaches. The only objector was Evan Evans Tours Ltd. (a Wallace Arnold subsidiary).
Making the application, Mr. H. W. Smith, general manager of Sightseeing International, said that the original application had been amended because London Transport had refused to consent to a halt at Windsor. The proposed route was now non-stop to "Great Fosters" via M4, Eaton and Windsor.
Questioned by Mr. Smith about the response to the proposed tour, Mr. Bernard Walmsley, managing director of Sightseeing International, said that he had recently been on a tour of the United States where agents had shown great interest. He produced supporting letters from BOAC—who thought it was sufficiently worth while to sponsor through its future publicity— The British Travel Authority, Lissone Lindemann and two American tour companies. The overall cost would be £4, of which the road fare would be it.
Mr. J. E. Hanson QC, on behalf of Evan Evans, asked Mr. Walmsley about its experience as tour operators. Mr. Walmsley said he had been in the public transport business for 28. years, and since his company was formed in January 1969 it had been organizing overseas group travel; nearly all its traffic came from abroad. The tour was to be operated every Tuesday for the banquet but it wanted to be able to operate at other times for anyone wishing to go to "Great Fosters".
Mr. J. A. Periton, of Periton Travel Service, Chelsea, and Mr. John Bowman, manager of "Great Fosters", supported the application.
Mr. E. J. Atkinson, manager of Evan Evans Tours, in cross-examination said that his company was proposing to operate an evening tour in 1970 for a medieval banquet in London. At the present time it operated a number of evening tours in London itself, one of which included a dinner. Its evening tours were not fully booked in 1969 and he suggested that the applicant was basically applying for an evening tour which would abstract Evan Evans traffic.
Granting the application, Mr. W. M. Levitt, deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Traffic Commissioners, said that although this type of tour could be operated under the 12th Schedule of the Road Traffic Act 1960, which meant the tour must be booked abroad, an undertaking of this magnitude should not have that degree of restriction which would be unattractive to foreign and home tourists. This type of tour, said Mr. Levitt, was to be preferred to those visiting gambling haunts and public houses.