European leisure destination operator Merlin Entertainments has invested $34.4m in Big Bus Tours, a leading global owner-operator of hop on, hop off city tours, and the formation of a strategic partnership allowing further cooperation across many of Merlin’s city centre markets.
Big Bus Tours operates a fleet of nearly 400 open-top busses in 17 major cities, including Abu Dhabi, Budapest, Chicago, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, London, Miami, Muscat, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, San Francisco, Vienna and Washington DC.
Commenting on Merlin’s investment, Nick Varney, chief executive officer for Merlin, said: “We see significant revenue synergies from this business with our own city centre attractions and there is already a clear overlap in eight cities, including London, Hong Kong and San Francisco.
