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Inverness Tours Coordinator, Tony Harmsworth, has won numerous tourism awards including the first coach tour to be awarded five Scottish Tourist Board stars and winner of the best tourist attraction in the Highlands in 2004. This picture was taken in 2003 when he still operated a bus. Today tours are conducted in various comfortable vehicles mainly six or eight passenger comfortable cars at even higher standards.
The photograph (right) was taken with Tony's bus and the five star award
plaque. No previous tour in Scotland had won this award. Sadly regrettable
reductions in the standards applied by the new VisitScotland scheme means that
this award is now given to crowded
minibuses
on ridiculous break-neck itineraries from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Currently our new exclusive tour business falls outside the scope of the Scottish Tourist Board grading scheme, but previous awards won will give you confidence that whatever we offer, we do with excellence as the objective.
Tony has also completed many courses for excellence in tourism including Scotland's Best Managers and Welcome Host.
In 2004, largely through the efforts of guide, Alison Cameron, the bus tour business was given the highest accolade available.
It was not just the best tourist attraction in the Highlands, but the award had been voted for by the tours customers themselves who swamped the awards' committee with so many votes that they had no choice but to give the Visitor Attraction trophy to a bus tour! A trophy won the previous year by the mega-million-pound Urquhart Castle Visitor Centre.
Such a nomination had never occurred before and the committee have since reorganised the awards to make it almost impossible for such an award to be won by a tour again in the future.
When the organisations who give awards have to change the criteria and standards in order to open them to other businesses, it speaks volumes about the quality of the company who first set those standards.
Tony has been at the quality end of the business for more than thirty years and is striving to make his new exclusive tour business the finest of its kind available in Scotland.
In 2007 Tony was joined by Hugh Allison, local historian, author and medieval weapons.
He has worked for a number of tourist boards and became a senior manager in Cultural and leisure services, for local government in the Highlands. This meant that he had responsibility for developing and promoting heritage and tourism; and the 1980’s and 1990’s Hugh gained a string of prestigious awards for good practice. He also wrote several publications on walks, car-tours, and the geology; natural history; and myths and legends of the Highlands.
At the turn of the millennium he chose to take employment with the charity “The National Trust for Scotland”, managing both Brodie Castle and Culloden Battlefield for them. It was also during this period that he realised the long-held dream of becoming a fully-fledged author.
Some tour operators believe that a chauffeur's cap and limousine provide the best tours available. We don't use limousines, but we do have comfortable seven-seaters with PA systems and we firmly believe that what is under the chauffeur's cap is infinitely more important than its posh appearance.
You might find more luxurious vehicles at a price, but surely when visiting a country it is far more important to really understand its history and culture. We promise you will not find a better experience or a more knowledgeable expert to guide you.
