Tourists take to the streets to help to clean-up Edinburgh

A GROUP of tourists have joined city residents in taking to the Royal Mile to help pick-up litter amid the Capital's ongoing bins crisis.

A group of 40 tourists and locals took to the streets today.

The initiative, organised by walking tour operator Sandeman’s, saw around 40 people from around the world dedicating an hour to the cause on Saturday. They were rewarded with a free ticket to one of the tours.

The firm’s PR manager Billy Fisher said: “We’ve been operating tours here in Edinburgh for over 10 years and are always looking for ways to show our love to the community. We know visitors to the city love it as much as we do, and that they would want to help give back if we could only provide the mechanism.

“We were really pleased at how many people turned out. And that somehow, miraculously, the sun was shining”, he added.

Dante Wong, visiting Edinburgh from Peru, said “I always like to see a city from the inside. Doing something like this is not common for tourists.

“I like Edinburgh very much,” he added. “The people are awesome.”