In a landmark ruling in the UK that will be keenly followed in many other tourist centres around the world, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned the misleading use of the word “Free”. So-called ‘free’ tours are promoted by a growing number of companies offering guided walks in major tourist cities such as London and the ASA is concerned that tourists and visitors may be misled.
Unqualified, self-employed ‘guides’ leading “free” walks for these tour companies typically have no recognised professional guiding qualification or safety training. They are at risk of being exploited by companies that charge them a per capita ‘marketing fee’ to provide clients and because this has to be funded from the so-called ‘guide’s’ sometimes meagre tip, tourists and visitors can feel put under unwelcome pressure to cough up when they expected their tour to be completely free – as advertised. That is unfair on the customer, to say nothing of potential exploitation of the ‘guide,’ who in effect may have to pay to work.
The move was welcomed by the1800 Blue Badge and Green Badge registered tourist guides, who are members of the British Guild of Tourist Guides www.britainsbestguides.org which is the UK’s largest membership body for Blue Badge tourist guides. The ASA’s decision has also been welcomed by professionally qualified guides’ organisations in London, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and by the World Federation of Tourist Guiding Associations, who have been concerned about this business model prevalent in many countries.
Guild Chairman, Mark King commented: “The British Guild of Tourist Guides has fought for more than two years to challenge this increasingly prevalent and misleading form of marketing and dubious ‘gig economy’ employment practices. We are delighted that the ASA has now recognised that these walks are not ‘free’.”
David Tucker, owner of the world’s longest-established urban walks company, London Walks Ltd. www.walks.com noted: “I am delighted by the ASA’s ruling. You can’t redefine the word ‘free’ or the word ‘tips’. People can still offer free walks - they just have to be free. If they’re not free they won’t be advertising them as free. That’s good news for consumers, good news for this profession, good news for this country’s reputation for playing a straight bat. End of story.”
Richard Jones, London Blue Badge tourist guide and operator of Discovery Tours & Events Ltd. www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/ added: “Free tours are a great idea, so long as they are free. The problem has been that the guides working for companies have to pressurise the client to pay as much as they can in order to make a living and to pay the advertising costs of the company they work for”.
Tourism is the UK’s 5th largest industry sector and continues to deliver a strong growth trend in visitor numbers and value to the economy: www.visitbritain.org/forecast Tourism is the UK’s 3rd largest employer, providing jobs for 3.1m people (over 9.6% of the UK workforce) and contributing £121bn to the UK economy (7.1% of GDP).
