Innovative tour bus company seeks input
Tourism in Bermuda may be enjoying its third year of growth — but a local family business is struggling to find customers.
Beeline Transportation brought three state-of-the-art tour buses to the Island from China a year ago at a cost of about $125,000 each.
The plush purple and white vehicles are perfect for tours, featuring overhead compartments, screens on which to show DVDs, a high-quality PA system, individual lights and reclining seats.
But Harry-O Simons, who runs the business with his father Harrison and two brothers, told The Royal Gazette: "There is just not enough work for the three of them."
The Southampton company employs about 13 Bermudians, including eight uniformed drivers, and does airport runs, dine-around trips between hotels and work for internet travel company Expedia.
The family are Seventh-day Adventists and also run free trips for elderly parishioners to church.
But Mr. Simons said ideally he'd like to see Beeline become a dedicated tour bus operator. "We are just a small company and we are just trying to get ourselves together and see what we have got," he said.
"These are really tour buses. We want to build it up a little bit more than what it is. The only company that does the tours is government buses. We want to be a private sector version of that.
"We are trying to see if we could move in that direction. We have everything we need; we just need someone to help us get going.
"We are not sure who to turn to. We need to get somebody who is going to help direct us in the right direction. We need somebody that feeds us work."
Beeline already uses three certified tour guides and is planning to produce a DVD featuring images of old Bermuda to show passengers.
Mr. Simons said he hoped a trip on one of the mini-Greyhound buses, which are about 25ft long, would become an essential for tourists visiting Bermuda this summer.
"We just need work," he said. "Instead of just going down to the airport and coming up with a few people we need to come up with more people."
To contact Beeline call Mr. Simons on 293-0303.
