While many sightseeing trips like TMZ's are temporarily closed, companies are staying afloat by renting open-air vehicles to studios and locals for transport and day trips. One pitfall? Customers"who don't believe in the virus."
The handful of tour companies that have returned face a new world, now bringing in just 5 to 6 percent of the revenue they saw at the same time last year. StarLine Tours — one of Los Angeles' biggest tour groups — restarted its stars' homes tour and hop-on, hop-off double-decker bus Sept. 1, both in open-air vehicles.
StarLine also has started renting out its roofless buses to the studios, at a time when being outdoors can be key to virus safety. Productions are using the vehicles to transport talent, crew and equipment from location to location, in place of the traditional sprinter vans and private cars. Farhadi says Los Angeles residents also have accounted for much of StarLine's business since reopening:"People are saying, 'There's not much else to do, let's try one.'"