Visit England Awards Finalist

We're thrilled to announce that The Welcome People have made the shortlist for the Visit England Awards for Excellence 2015.

We've been nominated in the Visitor Information Provider of the Year category, following an independent assessment of our service earlier this year.

The Welcome People provide visitor welcome and street management services to some of the UK's best known destinations across London and in Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge.  By the summer you'll also find our service in Canterbury and Croydon.

Launched in 2011, The Welcome People employ 75 truly fantastic multi-lingual staff with a passion for customer service.  This shortlisting is a tribute to their dedication and commitment.  We're very proud of what they've achieved.

Wish us luck!  The Awards take place in Gateshead in May.

 Our wonderful people!

Canterbury Tales

From early May this year, you'll find The Welcome People in the beautiful city of Canterbury. We've just been appointed by Canterbury Connected Business Improvement District to provide their visitor welcome and street management services.

We're currently recruiting - so if you love Canterbury, love meeting people and think you've got what it takes to be the perfect City Ambassador, go to our join us page to find out more!

And finally - Award Winning Mark!

The final recipient for an award on Friday night was Mark from Manchester, who won our Employee of the Year Award. Mark joined us at the very start of our partnership with the Heart of Manchester BID almost two year's ago.

Supervisor of our Manchester team, Kathy, describes Mark as her rock.  Always smiling, Mark seems to know everybody in Manchester!

Well done Mark - you thoroughly deserve it.

Mark (far left) celebrating his win with fellow Mancunian's Nicholas, Louise, Tina, Kathy and Jason.

Award Winning Oxford Street

The Award for Team of the Year (Large Team) went to our amazing Oxford Street Ambassadors. A feature of Britain's favourite High Street for more than three years, our Oxford Street Team includes Luciana, Mara, Francesco, Tony, Michael, Matt, Dominique, Elisa, Lydia and Norbert.

Congratulations!

Award Winning Sloane Street

At our recent New Year Party, the boys in Sloane Street walked off with the award for Team of the Year (small team). Kar, Jorges, Shu and Fabio have been part of the Sloane Street set since November 2013.

Congratulations guys - very well deserved!

Award Winning People

Last Friday, our brilliant staff gathered in London for our traditional New Year Get Together. Nearly 70 travelled from as far away as Manchester and Birmingham to join the celebrations at OXO2 on London's South Bank.

Our thanks to the sensational Sam Lane and Michael Redina for the fantastic photos of the night!

Group hug!

Festive Greetings from The Welcome People

 

From everyone at The Welcome People, have a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful and joyful New Year.

Meet Adam

  Our friends at Cambridge BID recently updated their website and introduced a new additional member to our Ambassador Team.

Adam is our new virtual Ambassador - on hand to welcome you to the new website and guide you around what the site (and the beautiful city of Cambridge) has to offer.

He's a friendly little chap who's partial to the odd cookie - a bit like the rest of our team then!

Say hello to Adam and Jess and Chris and Will and Andreea and Peter here.

Christmas Starts Here...

Last night our Ambassadors in Oxford Street once again were on hand to help switch on the famous Christmas Lights in Oxford Street. Cheryl Fernandez-Versini did the honours at John Lewis and the crowds were out in force the celebrate the start of the Christmas build-up.

Among them were Zana & Gemma from Accessorize in Oxford Street (above) who were also celebrating Zana's Birthday.

Happy Birthday from us Zana - we hope you had a good one!

Within the Sound of Bow Bells...

The Welcome People headed east into the City of London last week with the launch of our team in Cheapside, site of the famous Bow Bells.

Based out of the City Information Centre by St Paul's Cathedral, our team of Husna, Matt and Paolo, look forward to welcoming you to the historic Square Mile.

Just Hangin' Around Baker Street ....

 

Recently our lovely client Baker Street Quarter Partnership hosted their AGM at the famous Madame Tussauds in London.

After the formalities, our fabulous Ambassadors David and Gabriela took time to pose with the BSQP team, plus a few other not so famous people.

Thanks to MediaMixer for the photo.

All in a day's work...

Recently our friends at New West End Company decided they'd like to showcase what we do for their Members. A film crew followed some of our guys in Oxford Street and Regent Street and we thought you'd like to see it too.

Since we began in 2011, we've welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors to the shopping district of London's West End.

https://vimeo.com/107718802

Exclusive! Peter Andre & Jordan back together!!

It's a fact!  OK, so it's not THAT Peter Andre and Jordan. Peter, Andre and Jordan happen to be our new team of Ambassadors ready to welcome you to The Colmore Business District of central Birmingham.

The boys started a few weeks ago and and are becoming a familiar site around the area which borders the historic Jewellery Quarter and the retail heart of the city.

We have no plans for a reality tv series .........

Catching Up

 

It's been a bit crazy around here lately - with no time to update the website!

Over the next few days we'll catch up on a few things that have happened to The Welcome People since the Spring.

First up - our lovely team in Manchester celebrated one year in the job by posing for The Manchester Evening News.  Pictured above are Nicholas, Mark, Ciaran, Katerine, Tina, Geraint and Kathy.

On Your Bike....

 

Three of our West End team - Riccardo (Bond Street), Flavio (Oxford Street) and Lisa (Regent Street) recently took part in a sponsored static cycle race as part of the One Great Day event organised by St Christopher's Place.

The event raised funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital, and more than 40 teams representing businesses in the local area took part, raising more than £1500.

While we didn't win, the guys had great fun and may have started a new trend of formal cycling - dumping the lycra for a 3 piece suit!

Congratulations to all who took part and well done Team TWP!

We also set World Records!

 

As well as providing a great welcome and excellent customer service, our Ambassadors also set World Records!

Yesterday on The Northbank, our team made a Guinness World Record Attempt at handshaking!

Diego, Al and Edu all raced down a line of 100 visitors outside The National Gallery to see who could shake hands in the fastest time.  There were strict rules to adhere too, all under the watchful eye of GWR judges.

After a couple of false starts - Edu (below) was proclaimed official champion by completing the run in 1 minute 45 seconds and is now in the record books!

We always knew our people were amazing - now it's official!!

Photography by Mickey Lee courtesy of The Northbank BID.

This is what we do....

So many people come up to us and ask us what we do - we thought it was about time we showed you! Our talented friends at Roll Studio (twitter) followed some of our Ambassadors around the streets of London with a camera a couple of months ago, as they went about their daily tasks on behalf of our clients.

https://vimeo.com/87491531

We hope you enjoy it.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

The crowds gathered recently in London's Strand to meet former Doctor Who star Tom Baker who was signing copies of a new book featuring his adventures as the world-famous Time Lord. Our Northbank Ambassador Diego, stepped into The Tardis (well the Stamp Centre at 79 Strand actually) to meet the Doctor and help him with some directions to his next signing.

Oxford Street Turns Blue

The New Year brought a smart new look to our Oxford Street team. Here's Charlie modelling our new livery (and new information point).  It was a cold day, but we're pleased to say Charlie didn't turn as blue as his tie!

Look out for Charlie and the rest of our team who patrol the length of Oxford Street seven days a week.  In the last twelve months, the team welcomed more than 500,000 visitors.

We have two fixed information points on Oxford Street (at the junction of South Molton Street and at the junction of Argyll Street), so you're never far away from expert advice and information.

The Party People!

Last Friday was our annual staff party, when 60 of the team got together at Kettners in Soho to celebrate. It's also traditionally the time of year when we hand out awards to staff and this year was no exception.

The evening culminated in our Team of Year and Employee of the Year awards.

First off the rank was Team of the Year (small team) which was awarded to inMidtown

left to right standing - Aldo (Supervisor), Greig, Linda and Gosia (holding the award)

Next up was Team of the Year (large team) which was awarded to Victoria ....

Left to right - Luis, Hamid, Barry, Barbara, David H, Caterina and Tom (Supervisor)

Finally, Employee of the Year, which this year went to Lisa Petersen, seen below collecting her award.