17 February 2003

Rankine named as vice-Chairman of
European Cities Tourism City Cards Working Group

The founding director of The London Pass, Angus Rankine has been named as vice-Chairman of the pan-European ‘city card’ working group inside European Cities Tourism. Established in 1995, European Cities Tourism has 36 members, all of whom run various city card schemes in cities across Europe.

European Cities Tourism is the leading professional tourism network, which promotes and links the interests of tourism across cities in Europe. Primarily made up of local government bodies, the network connects more than 80 major cities from 30 countries and aims to strengthen city tourism by communicating information and sharing knowledge and expertise.

For a set fee, the city card generally gives the visitor access to the city’s tourist attractions, as well as transport around the city. The city card is a relatively new phenomena, but has become more popular, primarily since the rise in ‘city-break’ travel across Europe. The group was brought together to try to find ways to make the card more attractive to visitors, and to share working practices across the group.

The London Pass was established in 1997, and was the first privately run ‘city smart card’ in the world. The card boasts the latest smart card technology, enabling its users to head straight to the front of the queue. Also, as well as being value for money, the card, because of its focus on ‘user-friendliness’, has now signed up the vast majority of London’s tourist attractions. This not only assists the venue, by reducing manpower from their side, but is also a bonus for tourists, who want to beat the queues when exploring London. The world of city passes used to lie firmly in the hands of local government, and consequently did not have the same focus on profitability. All this is changing now, and the existence of queues around the world’s visitors’ attractions, may become something of a bygone era.

Angus Rankine, the company’s founding director, is currently in talks with cities across the globe to advise on the creation of a city card, or re-vamping the existing card, to ensure it is run efficiently, and is profitable for the local government. The ultimate goal being a global brand, which is instantly recognisable and thereby creating confidence for the newly arrived traveller.

Commenting on his appointment Rankine said: “The city card is a great idea, but generally needs to developed further, to ensure all parties involved are benefiting from the agreement. The European Cities Tourism group enables discussion to take place, and is a useful forum to share ideas. I would personally like to see a city pass, as an essential part of every visitor’s stay, wherever they are in the world”.


pr@leisurepassgroup.com