Association of Professional Tourist Guides

Chairman's Report for APTG AGM 2005

From members' accounts, 2004 has been a good year for guiding. (The Americans seem to be travelling again, plus the Europeans are travelling regardless of the exchange rate between the euro and the pound.) This is borne out by the Visit London figures which report activity at London's five main airports up 5% on 2003 and hotel occupancy rates rising. Between July and September 2004, over 8m visitors travelled to the UK. This is the highest ever-recorded number for this period. For the 12 months to September, overseas visits have grown by 11% on 2003. Visitor numbers are even higher than before 9/11.

As you know, one of APTG's main tasks is marketing and making sure that our members have access to these visitors. Therefore, we participated in the International Tourist Guide Day in February. This was well publicised with the support of the London Development Agency. They gave us money for advertising and reprinting the Blue Badge leaflet. Many thanks to Simon Good and all the volunteers who made it such a success.

Jane Henson and her team organised the Travel Trade Reception at Quod on the Haymarket. This was an enjoyable evening, with an opportunity for us to meet various tour operators. This is the time when we say "thank you" to the tour operators for their continuing use of Blue Badge guides.

APTG and Tour Guides jointly manned a stand at the British Travel Trade Fair in Birmingham. This was a chance to meet new tour operators and explain about Blue Badge guides. All the contacts that we made have now been added to APTG's database. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the stand. Unfortunately, Tour Guides have decided not to participate at the British Travel Trade Fair this year.

We also held our annual New Guides' Seminar/Reception in March. This is when we talk to the new guides about APTG, Amicus and the services provided. The hope is that they will then join us. It was organised by Sarah Reynolds with her usual efficiency. It was obviously successful, because 21 of the new guides joined APTG this year.

The World Travel Market was held at Excel in Docklands. This is the world's largest travel and tourism show. We again shared a stand with the Guild, together promoting the use of Blue Badge guides and making new contacts. Many thanks to Alison Johnston and her team for manning the stand. Ali, with Hugh Dickson, also organised APTG's presence at Excursions held at Alexandra Palace last Saturday. Thank you to all the guides, who started out at the crack of dawn, to accompany the coaches into London, thereby having a captive audience to be told all about Blue Badge guides.

Another important task of APTG is to provide members with information that will help them in their work. APTG owes a great debt of gratitude to all the volunteers, who do a myriad tasks, to keep APTG working smoothly. Karen Sharp edits Guidelines, Liz du Parcq and her team produce the monthly diaries, Steph Tickner organises the monthly mailings, Rosie Pollard and her team have produced a wonderful programme of E & T events for us this winter, Owen Joseph has raised money via the 100 Club, Sue Mason and her team produce the indispensable Tourist Guides' Directory, helped by Nicola Watts, who conjures up the Register of Members, and all our liaison officers make sure we sort out any problems with individual sites. Thank you to all of you. (I apologise if I have missed someone out!)

You will have noticed that Amicus are now producing Guidelines for us in-house. I hope that you like the new style. We had some publishing problems during the summer because of the teething troubles with the merged unions. (All organisations go through initial problems when there is a merger.)

The APTG office is now based temporarily back in Bermondsey Street, while the Moreland Street offices are being refurbished. I'm not sure when we will move back, but it will not be until the summer. Our office is running very efficiently now, with Anna Simpson in charge. She has been a great help to me as the office administrator. As I said last year, often Anna will only tell me about a problem after she has solved it, which I much appreciate. We all owe Anna thanks for her efforts on behalf of APTG.

APTG's efforts behind-the-scenes paid off when Canterbury Cathedral ran their first ever course for Blue Badge guides. It was very successful, and hopefully they will run a further course this autumn.

From time to time, we even get together on a social basis. Jeanie Carmichael and Vicky Bick organised the APTG Christmas party, with Phil Cookson acting as a brilliant Father Christmas. It was well attended, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The money raised will be donated to Cancer Research. Thank you, Jeanie, for your suggestion of a party this year and not just a pub dinner.

Many of us got together at St Botolph's church for the Blue Badge guides Carol Service. Again the collection was taken to raise money for CRISIS, the charity for the homeless. Many thanks to the committee and the choir for their hard work.

A disappointment for APTG was the fact that Amicus found asbestos in Whitehall College and closed it immediately. Many of us will miss our annual get-together, but Karen Eastland and Doug Wood are planning an APTG quiz evening later in the spring. We are trying to find out whether we can use Esher Place (another Amicus college) for January 2006.

The major loss to the Blue Badge profession this year was the death of Katrine Prince, who was probably the person who did the most to establish tourist guiding as a recognised career. Sadly, this year has seen the loss of several members of APTG.

Finally, I would like to thank my Branch Council, who have been invaluable during the year. It would be impossible to do this job without their help and support. It is very much a joint effort. So on behalf of you all, I propose a vote of thanks to your Branch Council.

I am delighted that Anna McKeown has offered to stand as Chairman of APTG. I look forward to working with the new Branch Council this year, after I return from a long, restful holiday.

Thank you.

Robina Brown, January 2005

APTG Chairman's Report 2004
APTG Chairman's Report 2002/3
APTG Chairman's Report 2001/2
Annual report 2000
Annual report 1998