Ambassatours Gray Line is featured in Travel Courier, October 12, 2006.
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Cover Story
By Ian Stalker
Halifax-based Ambassatours Gray Line believes its unusual dress code is giving it a leg up on the competition.
The firm, which bills itself as The Company With the Kilts, frequently has senior management and guides sport kilts – clothing that reflects the Scottish heritage of much of the population of the province that it’s based in and which helps raise the visibility of company executives when they staff booths at trade shows and the like.
“We were wearing kilts along the streets of Halifax long before any hotel bellmen were. We think it’s good for the image of Nova Scotia,” says company managing partner Paul Emmons, a 30-year veteran of Atlantic Canada’s tourist trade, and who, like other Ambassatours Gray Line’s management, hands out business cards that have cloth tartan attached.
“All of our tour guides are required to wear kilts. It’s our uniform.”
Indeed, appearing in public with kilts frequently leads to clients and strangers alike wanting to pose for pictures with Ambassatours Gray Line’s staff, who can sometimes literally take on the role of the pied piper of Halifax, with pub crawls of Nova Scotia’s capital literally having a kilted bagpiper leading easily recognizable — thanks to their sporting bright yellow Nova Scotia fishermen’s hats — Ambassatours Gray Line clients in and out of city bars.
“They [those going on the tours] love it. It’s the hit of their whole time here,” says Emmons, who reports his company has sent over 400 people on such a tour.
And the pub crawls are only one of the offerings that the decades-old company features, with Ambassatours Gray Line – once known as Atlantic Tours, but which renamed itself 1.5 years ago believing its former name was too likely to be confused with names of some other firms operating in the Atlantic Provinces – having multi-day motorcoach tours throughout the region, city tours and a host of other options for those wanting to explore the easternmost provinces.
Indeed, some 30 years of operation has lead to Ambassatours having the Gray Line franchises for NS, NB and PEI, it is now the largest operator of shore excursions for cruise ships calling at Halifax, it has a fleet of 30 motorcoaches (one executive motorcoach features couches, artwork, a shower, a kitchen, television, and other amenities for those wanting to travel in a particularly comfortable fashion and the company has 15 double-decker buses that are used for city tours.
The firm’s reservations centre is open at least 12 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the year, and Ambassatours Gray Line vehicles are literally on the go even during the slower winter season, a time when they may be carrying university sports teams for instance.
“We’re a fairly diversified organization,” notes Emmons, who adds the bulk of the company’s business is inbound, or as he puts it, “bringing the world to Atlantic Canada.”
Indeed, company VP Gary Powell labels Ambassatours Gray Line “the largest tour operator east of Montreal,” and the company’s brochure has one- and multi-province tours that can enable people to see seabirds, whales, a one-time Viking settlement, the Bluenose, reminders of Anne of Green Gables, the Cabot Trail, and a host of other things synonymous with the Atlantic Provinces.
“This is where Canada began. We’re the most historical part of Canada. If people want to discover the country, they should discover its roots,” says Emmons, citing not only Charlottetown hosting the conference that led to Confederation but such historical Nova Scotia Structures as Louisbourg Fortress and Halifax’s Citadel.
Ambassatours Gray Line, which also caters to the meetings and incentives markets using venues such as the Citadel, and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, includes among its exhibits one devoted to the Titanic.
INFO
Call 1-800-565-7173 or 902-423-6242 or access
www.ambassatours.com.