In 2013, nearly 17 million people visited London, so there are many tourist services. One unique service is Unseen Tours, which arranges walking tours for tourists. The company only hires tour guides who are either homeless or were homeless before.
In 2010, The Sock Mob, a group dedicated to helping homeless people in London, worked with homeless people and wanted to help them make enough money for food and a home of their own. The Sock Mob also wanted to show that the homeless could do something good for their community. Additionally, Unseen Tours wanted to offer tourists a different kind of tour experience, so they found tour guides with a unique perspective1 of London.
Guides are trained for three months before giving tours. They receive 60 percent of the fees2 collected in the tours. The remaining money goes to running Unseen Tours. Some of that money is used to pay for phones and transportation3 for the tour guides. With the profits, the company tries to hire more guides and further expand its tours. Unseen Tours is now a top-rated4 service, and it won The Observer Ethical Tourism Award in 2013.
