City Sightseeing

**City Sightseeing** is an open-top, sightseeing tour bus operator. It provides tour bus services in more than 130 cities around the world. As City Sightseeing has grown and expanded, the company now also provides boat tours, sightseeing train tours, and guided walking tours.

The buses pass by main tourist attractions and major landmarks, while a prerecorded audio commentary is provided through headphones in multiple languages giving important facts and information about what is being seen. Many tours also have a live guide. Tourists may board and leave the buses within their ticket's time limit at the different bus stops on the circular routes. This is called *hop-on-hop-off*. Many cities have more than one route to showcase all the different sights and attractions. On some routes, buses leave the city for suburban sights. In some cities (New York City, Philadelphia, Sharjah) buses even operate at night. In some cities (Moscow, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Boston) a boat tour is also available. The United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and the United States are the countries with the largest number of cities with City Sightseeing service.

Each city has different ticketing options available, which range from a 24-hour pass to a 14-day pass. Furthermore, many tours include discounts for local attractions and restaurants. There are even bundle packs, where customers can buy tickets for several attractions when they purchase a bus or boat ticket. In 2015, more than 14 million tourists hopped-on a City Sightseeing tour.

In 2015, US officials raised safety concerns about City Sightseeing tours after certain irregularities were discovered and a major crash occurred in San Francisco.

## Safety issues

In November 2015, a City Sightseeing bus injured 20 people in a crash at Union Square, San Francisco. The police concluded that this was due to driver error, although the driver maintained that the brakes had failed.

A city official questioned the safety of City Sightseeing tours, and the California Public Utilities Commission released a statement describing various irregularities and problems with City Sightseeing, including multiple permit suspensions since 2007 due to security infractions.

## Franchise model

The company has been largely developed along the franchise model. Some operations were completely owned by City Sightseeing, while some were joint ventures; however, the majority of tours are now operated by franchisees.

At a minimum, the franchise operator must use the City Sightseeing red base colour and graffiti style. They must use the global booking web-site, though many operate their own websites as well, and a percentage of the revenue is paid to City Sightseeing.

## Countries

### Brazil

* Rio de Janeiro
* São Paulo

### Caucasia

* Krasnodar
* Novorossiysk
* Sochi

### Cyprus

* Limassol
* Nicosia

### France

* Bordeaux
* Nice
* Paris

### Germany

* Berlin
* Kiel
* Potsdam

### Greece

* Athens
* Corfu
* Thessaloniki

### Iraq

* Baghdad
* Erbil

### Ireland

* Dublin
* Galway

### Israel

* Jerusalem
* Tel-Aviv

### Malta

* Gozo
* Malta

### Mexico

* Guadalajara
* Mexico City
* Monterrey

### Netherlands

* Amsterdam
* Rotterdam

### Norway

* Alesund
* Bergen
* Geiranger
* Oslo
* Stavanger
* Kristiansand

### Spain

* Seville
* Barcelona
* Benalmadena
* Cadiz
* Cordoba
* Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
* Malaga
* Palma de Mallorca
* Santander
* Toledo

### Sweden

* Stockholm
* Gothenburg
* Visby

### United Kingdom

* Bath
* Bournemouth
* Brighton
* Cambridge
* Cardiff
* Chester
* Edinburgh
* Glasgow
* Inverness
* Llandudno
* London
* Norwich
* Oxford
* Stratford-upon-Avon
* York
* Belfast

### United Arab Emirates

* Dubai
* Sharjah

### United States of America

* Hollywood - Los Angeles
* Miami
* New Orleans
* New York
* Philadelphia
* San Antonio
* Seattle

### Vietnam

* Hanoi
* Saigon