There’s a new tour in Boston whose vehicles have just started winding their way through the streets and rivers of Boston, and it’s called Boston Super Duck Tours. And no reference to the popular and well-known Boston Duck Tours; is yet another tourism company that wants to showcase the city of Boston and share the city’s resources with its visitors while trying to play a part in the city’s growing tourism wealth in which competition for the Visitor dollar has an intensified history.
The President of the Boston Duck Tours, Cindy Brown, went on a rampage, crying foul about the competition’s new name choice, very similar to the Boston Super Duck Tours. She claims it’s nothing more than an attempt to ride the most profitable tails of her company, Boston Duck Tours. Boston also accused Super Duck Tours of deliberately trying to confuse consumers, even going so far as to allow the public to believe that Super Duck Tours was somehow associated with Duck Tours.
No one in Ms. Brown strongly disagrees. However, that said, not all Boston Duck Tours are compassionate. Not all that long ago, when Boston Duck Tours was a relatively new company that used legal threats in an attempt to prevent some other country & water tours throughout New England. More than a few burgeoning road companies have never had a chance to succeed while simultaneously trying to build a customer base and fighting lawsuits from Boston Duck Tours.
Aside from the two names, Boston Duck Tours and Boston Super Duck Tours, the two tour groups are quite different. As the name Boston Super Duck Tours implies, their vehicles plunge into the water. Unlike the Boston Duck Tour, whose route takes water vehicles up the Charles River, past the Science Museum and Long Bridge, and toward Back Bay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Super Duck Tours will enter the Boston Harbor and provide visitors with views of America’s water side. Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) as well as views of Monument Hill Bunker and Old North Church at the end northern Also different is that Boston Duck Tours uses WWII surplus vehicles that are modern and well adapted to survive in an urban environment, the vehicles at Boston Super Duck Tours are specifically deposited and manufactured for the business of giving bus tours to tourists.
Land routes are also different. Boston Duck Tours follow a wider route that covers High Back and Beacon Mountain and a small part of Liberty Triage. Boston Super Duck Tours covers the Boston Harborfront, South Boston Waterfront, and the same part of the Freedom Trail that Boston Duck Tours covers. Overall, Boston Duck Tours has a more interesting land route, but they fail to stop at Long Wharf, which is the primary staging area for bus and trolley tours in Boston. This will put Boston Duck Tours at a serious disadvantage. about accidents and public complaints).
As for the quality of the travel narrative, early returns on the internet regarding Boston Super Duck coverage are pretty damning. That’s not surprising given that the owner of Boston Super Duck Tours, Dennis Kraez, has no background in tourism, and that Boston Super Duck Tours is a brand new venture. What many people don’t know or forget is that the Boston Duck Tours tour guides were horrible when they first started.
