Song and dance as tour moves in on rival's territory

Published on Monday 11 August 2008 10:53

A TOUR company seeking permission for a sightseeing walk in the Capital have run into objections from a singing tour guide at the centre of a similar turf dispute earlier this year.

The latest argument to break out on the Royal Mile comes after leading European tours company Sandeman applied for a licence to take visitors in and around traditional sites of the Old Town.

However, the man behind the quirky Oor Tours venture, which launches tours from precisely the same spot outside Starbucks on the Royal Mile, has appealed to the licensing board not to grant permission for the walk.

Graeme E Pearson successfully argued the case for his tour when it went to councillors in June.

Sandeman's New Europe Tours – which has guided walks in European cities such as London, Paris and Munich – already runs a popular pub crawl, ghost walk and sightseeing tour in the Capital. But they have applied for formal retrospective permission to run the latter from out of the Starbucks cafe on the High Street.

Graeme E Pearson, a well-known city musician, takes his tourists round traditional settings with a guitar, singing witty and traditional songs along the way.

He said he didn't want to make a fuss about the situation, and said he was actually on good terms with Chris Sandeman, who has applied for the trading licence.

He said: "It's a storm in a tea cup. I don't want to take their patch, I just want to keep mine."

In his letter of objection to the council he added: "I had noticed that these tours were advertising to start at 11 o'clock each day, but have since realised that they continue on throughout the day at various times, which would lead to confusion with Oor Tours and their tours."

Mr Pearson usually conducts his tours further up the Royal Mile, but had to move down to the blue police boxes at Starbucks because of the Fringe set-up.

The application will be decided on next week.

Included in the application was a letter from Starbucks store manager Harry Wilson, who has given Sandemans permission to use his coffee shop for a meeting point.

He said: "We are happy to store items for them and support their endeavours in any way that we can accommodate. We see a benefit in terms of an increase in customers from their operating out of the store."

When Mr Pearson mooted his musical tour in the Evening News back in March, Mercat Tours – one of the leading operators in Edinburgh – objected because he planned to start the tour at the same point they worked from.

Mr Sandeman was unavailable for comment.