User:Retreatfrommons2/sandbox

WorldWarOneWalks

This is an initiative of a committee of British Blue Badge tourist guides who in 2014, sought to commemorate the centenary of World War One by designing and leading a series of commemorative events and walking tours. Uniquely for the British tourism industry, WorldWarOneWalks is nation-wide and allows ITG qualified guides to enter and monitor their own events via an interactive WordPress-based website.

The Committee

This comprises Blue Badge tourist guides Simon Rodway (Chair), Stephen Szymanski, Stan Medland, Mark King (Marketing) and Sergei Senin. Szymanski is the 2014 Chair of APTG, one of the national organisations of guides, while Sergei Senin also serves as a Branch Council member of the same organisation.

The events

By the time of the 96th Armistice Day anniversary, the repertoire of walks an events range from a 'Battle Bus' tour through the streets of Birmingham, readings from the War Poets in Manchester as well as walking tours in Windsor and the capital. The walking tour element includes following the bombing path of Navy Zeppelin L13 on the night of 8th September 1915 from London's Queens Square to Liverpool Street Station, the route taken by the gun carriage bearing the coffin of the Unknown Warrior from Platform 8 at Victoria Station to the western entrance of Westminster Abbey, and a tour on foot that follows the route of the ceremonial carriage ride taken in December 1918 by King George V and US President Woodrow Wilson, from London's Charing Cross Station to Buckingham Palace to celebrate the US contribution to the Allied victory.

Precedents

In 2005 when Great Britain was awarded the 30th Olympiad, the British Blue Badge tourist guiding community mounted a joint initiative to capitalise on the national and global interest in the event. Though denied direct access to the Olympic Park site by health and safety issues, as well as the tightly controlled permissions attendant upon any Olympiad by the IOC, the Blue Badge guiding community was eventually able to claim to have brought 300,000

Public popularity

The events have attracted a mixed reception from the paying public