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and it meant that they could offer a driver guide. That would allow them to put a premium on a tour. I just felt so proud to be a blue badge guide and it meant so much.’
As it turned out, although 1986 was a tough year, things started to improve towards the end. In December 1986 Jane Orde, in her then capacity as Editor of the STGA Newsletter editor, reported it had been a tricky year for everyone in tourism, though the latter part of the season seemed to have picked up a bit as Americans ventured across the Atlantic.
‘Let us hope they were reassured by what they found and will continue to come next year,’ she said.
Sadly George Cochran, space who had received the MBE in the New Years Honours in 1981, died five years later and Mrs Margaret Bore became the new voice of the STGA booking service for the Edinburgh branch.
Edinburgh castle announced plans for coaches to park in Johnston Terrace instead of the esplanade with a proposed escalator to take passengers to a reception centre at the upper end of the esplanade!
Meanwhile Anne Lister asked Ros Newlands, Sheila Devlin-Thorp, Pat Dishon, Isabel Lennie, Ian MacDonald and other members who had qualified in 1983 if they would like to join the Edinburgh branch committee. One of the results was the publication of a new newsletter called Guidelines which appeared for the first time in Spring 1987 with Sheila Devlin-Thorp as editor.
By 1988 Ros Newlands had become Chair of the branch and also Training Manager following the resignation of Annie Lister.
With proposals being put forward in 1988 to close the Royal Mile to traffic, the Edinburgh branch of the STGA decided to attempt to dispel some of the myths prevalent in the city as to the nature of guided coach tours by inviting some of Edinburgh’s top people on a unique tour on April 14.
The tour was a great success. Forty three people attended including the Lord Provost, Tom Band, Chief Executive of the Scottish Tourist Board, Oliver Barrett of the Cockburn Association and the Traffic Commissioner, Mr T McNamara. According to Guidelines, Pat Dishon did a wonderful tour and comments were very favourable. A discussion session was held afterwards in the City Chambers and Guidelines reported that people were now much more aware of the STGA and of the problems its members face in doing City tours.
It seems hard to believe now but in 1988 it was proving difficult to obtain maps of Edinburgh for visitors. Consideration was given by the STGA to producing its own. A ‘very good meeting’ with Andrew Fyall at Edinburgh Council’s Department of Leisure and Tourism resulted in plans for the production of a free map which would be available in 1989 at no cost to the STGA.
1988 also saw the graduation of the STGA’s youngest guide Richard Thomson
‘I became a guide because, simply, it was path I favoured to walk,’ he said.
‘I had heard of the STGA, made enquiries and applied. I was interviewed by Mrs Lister, accepted, and then straight onto the course.
‘We met, either in, I think, the Appleton Tower or Buccleuch Place, every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6pm to 9pm. Then, if I remember correctly, every second Saturday and sometimes a Sunday.
‘It was totally full on’ Richard continued ‘and all our lives were committed through that time to passing our exams. The course cost £400 which was a huge amount of money at that time. ‘I had been working so it was from my savings and wages that I paid the course fee.
I was one of the youngest to qualify then but there were a good few others as well.
The association booking service gave the new guides tours - city and extended. I wrote to several companies, corporate and other companies like Globus.
‘I was interviewed and within my first year, I was well on my way to being established as a guide and I was on a firm footing. It was a time I had to be determined, work hard to prove myself. I got the chance, by reputation, in later years to work for other companies. Some have gone to the wall since then. I work for Globus almost 100 per cent now and I have been with them since I began. I was with a group of guides who were the “old school” and
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