City Sightseeing
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| Parent | Enrique Ybarra |
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| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Spain |
| Service type | Open top bus tours |
| Website | www.city-sightseeing.com |
City Sightseeing is a World's largest excursion sightseeing bus tour operator. It provides tour bus services in more than 100 cities around the world. The tours are operated by red open top double-decker buses.
The tourist attraction buses travel near major landmarks, while a prerecorded or live commentary in multiple languages is supplied through headphones. Tourists may leave and board the company buses within their ticket's time limit at bus stops on a circular route. This is called hop-on-hop-off. In large cities buses go on more than one route. On some routes buses leave the city for suburban sights (such as from Sintra to Cabo da Roca). In some cities (such as New York City) buses operate even at night. In some cities (such as Prague, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg), some variants of the ride include travelling by boat. The United Kingdom, Italy and Spain are the countries with the largest number of cities with City Sightseeing service.
Tickets are issued for either one or two day rides, and are purchased at tourist attractions or online. Tickets and discount offers are transferable between the worldwide tours. In some cities, rides by City Sightseeing are included in the city's guest card. A free map of the route for each city is offered as guide and advertisement as well as headphones are free for users. In 2011, nearly 13 million tourists took City Sightseeing tours.
The City Sightseeing name was first used in 1972 after Peter Newman used it for his City Coach Lines company, which ran tours of London four times a day.
In 1998, Ensignbus revived the name and developed the red livery in the Spanish city of Seville. There it helped an established sightseeing operator relaunch itself with double-deckers, using the experience and expertise developed with London Pride Sightseeing, through Ensignbus' vehicle business. With the sale of the London Pride Sightseeing, Peter Newman stated his intention to introduce a global brand of sightseeing buses. It also set up operations in Sydney, Australia, not as a franchise, but directly owned, during this year.
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Wikipedia