New York City TourGuide Business Wans as Tourism Booms
I've been a licensed New York City tourguide for over 20 years and (if I do say so myself), a pretty darned good guide. I've collected a file of wonderful letters and comments from grateful tourists over the years. My 5-Star reviews on Trip Advisor are dream reviews that many people would LOVE to have.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d6224473-Reviews-Jim_Dykes_New_York_Tours-New_York_City_New_York.html
So what's the problem? NYC tourism is BOOMING, with over 62.8 million tourists a year (up from 30 million a year when I started guiding. The problems are multiple:
1. Double-decker bus chains....these sightseeing companies that offer the constant "hop-on, hop-off"
bus tours that continually cruise around town picking up tourists popped up 10 years ago and have steadily increased. There are now 3 companies with dozens of buses in their fleets! People line up on street corners, packing these buses! Their guides are "low-information" and barely give any kind of a tour because on a typical bus there are
a dozen or more languages spoken so the "guide" (using the term loosely) gives only the most minimal information because frankly "why bother"? Most people are just riding around up there because the tours are CHEAP and PLENTIFUL ($60 pp); Hey if you miss one bus, there's always another. Of course, the problem is the weather has to be "perfect" before riding around on the upper outdoor level of a bus is fun. And the weather in NYC is only perfect a few days a year. It's either too hot or too cold or too rainy or too snowy, etc. And after the tour season is over, dozens of minimally trained "guides" are "let go", filling up the streets with more people to compete against us regulars who have much more experience. Many of these "guides" released from double-decker bus bondage, set up websites and start advertising their services. The person shopping on the internet has no idea who is really the good, reliable and knowledgeable guide with longtime experience and who was just fired from double-decker buses after 6 months. I've also heard that the NY DD bus companies are all dying to switch to recorded tours like in Europe and eliminate the guides altogether. We shall see.
2. Smart-phones....everybody has an i-Phone or a Samsung smart phone with GPS and instant walking tour maps and info pops up in your hand, making tourguides less necessary.
3. Many choices of "fringe" tours to choose from: This has been happening for years...entrepreneurs and eccentrics come up with ideas for "unique" "one of a kind" tour experiences such as The Pizza Tour, The various Food Tours, neighborhood walks, etc. Of course any decent, experienced guide like myself can offer any number of unique neighborhood tours and walks but it takes a LOT of money and energy for marketing to take a "fringe" idea like "the Chinatown egg-roll tour" and make it financially successful. One guy advertises a "FREE WALKING" tour series-- of course he's expecting that every person who shows up will tip him $20 per person (which NEVER happens by the way) so this must not be his main income.
I've been doing Jim Dykes New York Private Tours since the city was dirty and dangerous, before Rudy Giuliani magically brought in Disney and cleaned everything up. When tourism began booming, longtime guides like myself rejoiced, thinking this would be great for everybody's business but we were DEAD WRONG....with all this new tourism boom, comes a thousand new challenges from Johnny-come-lately tour companies and new guides with slick websites (promoting themselves as longtime experts). Hey, on the internet, nobody knows who the real experts are and who the bullshit artists are. With a slick website, everybody's a star
www.JimDykesNYC.com
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60763-d6224473-Reviews-Jim_Dykes_New_York_Tours-New_York_City_New_York.html
So what's the problem? NYC tourism is BOOMING, with over 62.8 million tourists a year (up from 30 million a year when I started guiding. The problems are multiple:
1. Double-decker bus chains....these sightseeing companies that offer the constant "hop-on, hop-off"
bus tours that continually cruise around town picking up tourists popped up 10 years ago and have steadily increased. There are now 3 companies with dozens of buses in their fleets! People line up on street corners, packing these buses! Their guides are "low-information" and barely give any kind of a tour because on a typical bus there are
2. Smart-phones....everybody has an i-Phone or a Samsung smart phone with GPS and instant walking tour maps and info pops up in your hand, making tourguides less necessary.
3. Many choices of "fringe" tours to choose from: This has been happening for years...entrepreneurs and eccentrics come up with ideas for "unique" "one of a kind" tour experiences such as The Pizza Tour, The various Food Tours, neighborhood walks, etc. Of course any decent, experienced guide like myself can offer any number of unique neighborhood tours and walks but it takes a LOT of money and energy for marketing to take a "fringe" idea like "the Chinatown egg-roll tour" and make it financially successful. One guy advertises a "FREE WALKING" tour series-- of course he's expecting that every person who shows up will tip him $20 per person (which NEVER happens by the way) so this must not be his main income.
I've been doing Jim Dykes New York Private Tours since the city was dirty and dangerous, before Rudy Giuliani magically brought in Disney and cleaned everything up. When tourism began booming, longtime guides like myself rejoiced, thinking this would be great for everybody's business but we were DEAD WRONG....with all this new tourism boom, comes a thousand new challenges from Johnny-come-lately tour companies and new guides with slick websites (promoting themselves as longtime experts). Hey, on the internet, nobody knows who the real experts are and who the bullshit artists are. With a slick website, everybody's a star
www.JimDykesNYC.com
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