Spotlight interview
Interview to Kesh Bhardwaj, Marketing Manager, See London By Night
1. Tell us about See London by Night, when did you start?
We started operating See London By Night in November 2010 which frankly was probably the worst time of the year to start an open top tour of London! However, we had waited a long time to get our licence approved and so once we got, we were raring to go.
With winter temperature down to -7 degrees C that winter, we plodded along with our marketing campaigns to get the awareness out there of this new tour of London. I remember at the time during our first week we had an inspection visit from a leading tour operator and when they got off the bus after the tour, they said to me, “ Kesh, this is something that’s been missing from London for a very long time” What inspiring words! Now almost 10 years on, they were definitely right.
2. International guests, what technology audio guides do you use and how many languages?
For the first few years the tour was live guided in English only which we thought was fine as it was meant to be a visual tour at night however with repeated requested from tour operators requesting different languages, we decided to team up with Vox D.M.A W. to provide a solution offering the tour in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese Mandarin. The tours are still live guided in English, however customers have the choice to use a personal audio guide if needed.
3. Why did you join ETOA and what do you hope to gain from your membership?
See London By Night really is a great way to see the beautiful buildings in London so wonderfully lit up at night and we want everyone to be aware that there is a tour out there that shows just that. We have made many partnerships with tour operators and OTA’s through meetings at various trade shows around the world but believe membership to such a vast organisation as ETOA will help develop even more great partnerships and even greater awareness of See London By Night.
