Dublin Bus has launched DoDublin, a rebrand of its city and coastal tours which have been operating in the capital since 1988.
Launching the campaign, it said its 63 drivers are Dubliners, Fáilte Ireland-trained and rack up over 250,000 miles as they show off the capital to 2.5m passengers each year.
A Dublin Bus driver for 29 years, Martin Connolly, said: “I’ve had the remains of three lovers of Dublin City on my bus. Their families scatter their ashes in their favourite spots across the city – the River Liffey is the most popular. The old Irish sod is another favourite as tourists visiting the Phoenix Park scoop up some of the earth to scatter on the graves of loved ones back home (mostly Americans). It seems there’s a desire for the famous Dublin wit to travel too. One driver had his voice recorded by an Irish man living in Argentina so they could get a better understanding of what ‘craic’ means.”
Many of the drivers said they are still asked where to find a real-life leprechaun and also Kelly’s Book (the Book of Kells). The new-look tours were launched at Dublin Castle by TV personality Jennifer Zamparelli (Maguire) with the help of three children dressed as famous Dublin characters.
Tours are available in Irish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. Customers come from all over the world but the biggest talkers are Americans, closely followed by UK and then Canada. After being piloted in 2016, this year also sees the introduction of live German tours conducted by native speakers living in Dublin. This is in response to increased demand from inbound travellers from Germany.
