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Agence France-Presse

Edinburgh, one the most visited cities in Europe, is offering tourists the chance to see it from a different angle – through the eyes of tour guides who have slept on its streets.
“When you’re homeless, people don’t look at you. They look through you,” the founder of the Invisible Cities initiative, Zakia Moulaoui Guery, says.
Sonny Murray, 45, knows this only too well. He came to Invisible Cities after a spell of being constantly in and out of prison.
“It was brutal, to be honest. Because I was addicted to drugs and stuff,” he says.

“I was shoplifting … when I wasn’t in prison, I was coming back out and I was homeless on the streets, just like a revolving door.”
Now, as Invisible Cities’ lead tour guide, he trains others, helping them to turn their life around just as he did.
All the tours are unique and devised by the guide themselves, he says.
Murray’s tour, which starts at the site of a former gallows, focuses on crime and punishment.
One of the highlights of his itinerary is the Edinburgh Support Hub run by Scotland’s leading homeless charity, the Simon Community.
It’s about training more people and having the current guides move on so we can create more opportunities for others
Moulaoui Guery, founder of Invisible Cities
When he was homeless, it was “literally the only place in Edinburgh where homeless people could come and have a shower or wash their clothes and stuff”, Murray says.
“It’s a horrible feeling going about and not being able to have a shower and wash your clothes and that after a couple of days. So I used to come here all the time,” he adds.
Homelessness is on the rise in Scotland, with an eight per cent rise this year in those either designated as homeless, living in temporary accommodation or having made homelessness applications.
French-born Moulaoui Guery says she hopes Invisible Cities’ work is helping tackle the sense of being unseen experienced by homeless people.


“All of a sudden, to empower people to be visible and the centre of attention and lead a tour, I think that’s really, really important,” she says.
There are currently 18 guides helping visitors discover aspects of the city they would not normally encounter.
Similar tours are also run in other cities in the United Kingdom including Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Liverpool.
Moulaoui Guery, who set up the initiative in 2016, says it is good for tourists to get a chance to scratch beneath Edinburgh’s picture-postcard surface.

“You can talk about the castle and Victoria Street and Harry Potter and all the different things that make it magical, but you can also talk about real topics,” she says.
With a lack of support networks and relationship breakdown among the leading causes of homelessness, Invisible Cities tries to “recreate community and a positive environment”, she says.
“It’s about training more people and having the current guides move on so we can create more opportunities for others to become guides,” she adds.

So far, around 130 people have undergone the training, which aims to provide a stepping stone to other training or employment opportunities.
But Murray says the benefits are not a one-way street.
Tourists benefit from a broader view of the place they visit, he says, adding that it also offers them satisfaction in helping the city’s “homeless down the line”.


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Tourism

Invisible Cities guide Sonny Murray leads a tour in Edinburgh. Photo: AFP

Invisible Cities tour guide Sonny Murray was once homeless and in and out of prison. Now he shows visitors Scotland’s capital from a different angle. Photo: AFP

Sonny Murray leads a tour of Canongate Kirk, a 17th century church in Edinburgh where notable people are buried including Scottish economist Adam Smith and 18th century poet Robert Fergusson. Photo: AFP

Murray struggled with addiction and was in and out of prison before joining Invisible Cities. Photo: AFP

Invisible Cities founder Zakia Moulaoui Guery says the initiative, while providing experiences for tourists, is also “to empower people” like Murray “to be visible”. Photo: AFP

Murray leads a tour of Edinburgh’s Canongate Kirk church. The ethos behind Invisible Cities is to take visitors beneath the Scottish capital’s picture-postcard surface. Photo: AFP

Murray enjoys a coffee break before one of his walking tours. Photo: AFP

Sex workers and former addicts in Czech Republic’s capital show tourists city’s dark side

Lada (sitting), a 54-year-old sex worker, takes tourists on a tour of Prague’s underworld. Photo: AFP

Lada became a sex worker at 19. Photo: AFP

Lada (right) does one tour a week to earn 400 Czech koruna (US$17) plus tips. Photo: AFP

Lada (centre) spent 30 years on drugs. Photo: AFP

Croatia the latest nation to consider restricting short-term tourist rentals

Tourists throng the Old Town of Dubrovnik, in southern Croatia. The nation is facing rising rents driven by holiday lets to visitors that create a housing shortage. Photo: Getty Images

The old town of the southern Croatian city of Dubrovnik. Photo: AFP

Residential buildings in Split, Croatia. Photo: Reuters

A drone view of Split, Croatia. Residents are being driven out of Croatian cities because of rising rent prices caused by tourists. Photo: Reuters

Glenn Mandziuk (above), CEO of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, presented a proposal to collect and report environmental data regarding tourism, at a recent Cop29 UN climate change conference. Photo: Reuters

K-drama sets draw fans to South Korea to see where shows that changed their lives are shot

Visitors take photos at a railway arch featured in the K-drama series Mr Sunshine, at Sunshine Studio in Nonsan, South Korea. Photo: AFP

People visit the set of K-drama series Mr. Sunshine at Sunshine Studio in Nonsan, South Korea. As the popularity of Korean dramas soars overseas, more tourists are planning trips around their favourite shows. Photo: AFP

People visit the set of K-drama series Mr. Sunshine at Sunshine Studio in Nonsan. The set is a perfect replica of 1900s Seoul. Photo: AFP

A view of the set of K-drama series Mr. Sunshine at Sunshine Studio in Nonsan. Photo: AFP

A visitor poses at a railway arch featured in Mr. Sunshine at Sunshine Studio. Photo: AFP

Shenzhen travel guide: how to get a visa on arrival, which apps to download and cashless payment in the Chinese city

To get to places in Shenzhen like Dongmen Pedestrian Street (above), Hong Kong residents without the right visa can apply for one on arrival. That’s not all you need to know - we break down the essentials for your trip from Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

WeChat is useful for electronic payments and for its mini-programs – apps within the app. Photo: Shutterstock

The simplest option within Hong Kong to reach Shenzhen is to take the MTR East Rail Line to Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau stations. Photo: Erika Na

Shenzhen taxis can be ordered via Didi Chuxing, the Chinese equivalent of Uber. Photo: Shutterstock

Alipay accepts foreign-issued credit cards and can be used to make e-payments in Shenzhen. Photo: Shutterstock

Baidu Maps is more accurate than Google Maps in Shenzhen. Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Tourists see city from a new angle through guides from Invisible Cities, a social enterprise making those affected by homelessness feel seen


Tourists see city from a new angle through guides from Invisible Cities, a social enterprise making those affected by homelessness feel seen.


Britain