1 CASE STUDY 13.1W Chapter 13 Roger Thompson, OBE, and Guide Friday

Visitors to a number of Britain’s cities will sub consciously corporate hospitality, ground-handling, private tours and Tourism and Entrepreneurship notice double-decker buses in a subtle yet distinctive green an educational package called the Shakespearean and cream livery. These belong to Guide Friday, the Experience. company founded by Roger Thompson in 1974; his first Apart from a spell in the police force, in Cornwall, Roger driver-guiding service was launched the year before and Thompson spent his working life in tourism, running his own targeted at London hotels and American travel agents – but hotel before moving to London. He died unexpectedly, in it was called Girl Friday. Apparently, the company name was November 1996, at the early age of 55; his wife continued in changed ‘to alleviate excessive demands on the girl driver the ‘family firm’ as public relations director. Looking back on guides!’ Roger Thompson moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in Roger’s achievements, a number of points can be made. 1975 and developed ‘The Stratford Go Round’; this tour First, with Guide Friday, he was committed to setting a high pioneered open-top buses and, innovatively, permitted visi- standard of customer care and quality of product; not only tors to get on and off at points on the route. Not only were has this been achieved, it is reflected by the awards of the the five Shakespearean properties linked this way, Roger British Tourist Authority’s ‘Come To Britain’ trophy and the also emphasized the social history which helped to bring the English Tourist Board’s ‘England for Excellence’ award – in attraction to life. Expansion began in 1988, after the two separate years. Second, a concern for environmental Stratford operation had been firmly established, with tours transport led to the introduction of LPG-powered buses. In available in Cambridge and, shortly after, Oxford, the wider world of tourism, he was founder member of the Edinburgh, Bath and York. This level of development neces- Association of Driver Guide Operators, vice president of the sitated six British branch offices and a further one has Heart of England Tourist Board, founder of Shakespeare recently opened in Dublin. At the beginning of 2001, Guide Country Association of Tourist Attractions and founder Friday was the largest city sightseeing tour company in the member of BITOA (British Incoming Tour Operators world running over 120 buses, in 35 destinations, employ- Association), initiated the first Blue Badge Guide course for ing over 750 staff, and carrying more than 1.5 million visi- the Heart of England, and was for many years a director of tors a year. Outside the UK, tours in Seville and Berlin are the annual Stratford-upon-Avon Festival. Roger Thompson is now well established; a new branch has just opened in Paris yet another example of the type of entrepreneur committed using new open-toppers in a special French livery. to ‘growing’ their own business at the same time as raising The Guide Friday tourism product made a valuable standards across the industry. The business appears to contribution to visitor management in historic cities by engender loyalty amongst its employees: many came to work linking major attractions in a continuous circuit thereby at the Stratford head office before the 1988 expansion. reducing the number of cars and noise pollution. The Roger Thompson was very much an owner-controller and the company has also pioneered the conversion of diesel success of the company made it ripe for a takeover bid, when engines to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) which results in Worldwide City Seeing (www.city_sightseeing.co.uk) with 70 per cent cleaner emissions; this service is now provided worldwide interests in city tours using open top buses to other bus operators. Guide Friday has also diversified purchased the business in 2002 (Shaw and Williams 1994). by establishing a conference division which provides The Guide Friday website is found at: www.guidefriday.com.