We train people affected by homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city and offer these alternative tours to tourists and locals.
Our city specific tour guide training empowers our guides to create, craft and deliver tours that are their own; highlighting monuments, people and places they have researched and chosen themselves.
Our guides create their own social enterprise tours to tell untold stories, share their stories, and welcome visits to their city.
Each year, with the support of partners including The Big Issue Invest, one of our funders, we produce an annual Impact Report, measuring our social value and sharing the outcomes of our work, training and partnerships.
The impact we deliver is achieved both in the direct employment of guides who are paid the living wage, and through the wider training and advocacy work delivered by the team across confidence building, public speaking, storytelling and other valuable life skills. You can read the latest Impact Report here:
Invisible Cities Case Study 2020 Updated
In 2023- and after periods of lock-downs we were able to have a full year of tours and activities! Want to know more?
You can read our 2023 Impact Report here!
Want to know about our impact for 2024? Our latest Impact Report is finally here.
We recruit and train people who have experienced homelessness to become walking tour guides. Some end up offering you unique, homelessness awareness tours of their cities, sharing their own handpicked hidden gems.
While others stay involved in the organisation and either work on other projects or get referred on to other organisations for new employment opportunities. We love being a stepping stone for people to go onto even bigger and better things.
We support everyone on a one-to-one basis to achieve their goals. We use part of our profit to support them through personal projects. This may be accessing further education or reuniting with family and friends.
Each of our tours has a theme and topic decided on by the guide themselves. We work together with the guide as part of their training to explore their city, visit other attractions and go on other tours to see and feel how brilliant tour guides run their experiences.
At Invisible Cities, raising awareness about homelessness is at the heart of our mission. Through our unique walking tours, we challenge misconceptions by sharing real, lived experiences—human stories that reveal the complex realities behind homelessness. Each tour invites people to see the city through a new lens, guided by individuals who have faced and overcome homelessness themselves.
But our work doesn’t stop there. Beyond the tours, we run innovative events and public campaigns designed to reach wider and more diverse audiences. These range from art installations and storytelling evenings to school workshops and corporate talks, all with the aim of sparking conversations, educating communities, and shifting attitudes.
By bringing homelessness out of the shadows and into public dialogue, we aim to create a society that is not only more aware but also more compassionate and inclusive. Our goal is simple: to replace stigma with understanding, and stereotypes with human connection.
Part of our mission is also to create a more positive and inclusive community. We start local projects that engage the wider community and then let them grow to reach more and more people. We want to roll out all our events and ideas in as many places as possible so work in partnership with other organisations so they can take owenerhip of them. These events have included our Street Barber pop-ups, The Writing on the Wall Publication in Manchester- a monthly letter distributed to people across the city and distribution of care packages or fresh flowers to women in our cities.
In 2018, we started replicating Invisible Cities in other cities, with Manchester, in October 2018 and Glasgow in November 2018. In June 2019, we launched tours in York.
In each city, we partner with another organisation and develop a team to make it a success. Are you interesting in having Invisible Tours in your own City contact Zakia here!
In all our cities, we are proud to offer FREE walking tours to members of our communities. We all love and and take pride in our cities and want others to feel just the same. That is why we have started offering free walking tours to members of other charities, community groups and organisations. This has included Ukrainian refugees in Edinburgh, locals to Govan in Glasgow and various community groups in Manchester.
These free community Tours are made possible thanks to our sponsors and friends around the country.
In Edinburgh, we have partnered with Axiom Hospitality who are kindly supporting our community tours of the city through their Meet with Purpose Programme. The voco Edinburgh Royal Terrace have worked with Invisible Cities since September 2022. Thanks to each Day Delegate Package that includes our “Meet with Purpose” option, one guest can come on our tour for free!
Since the start of this partnership, we have delivered free tours to over 1000 people !
But that’s not all: the guides and trainees at Invisible (Edinburgh) have also been able to distribute “Welcome to Edinburgh” goodie bags to children that include games, activities and sweet treats from the capital!
Zakia Moulaoui Guery is the founder and CEO of Invisible Cities, an award-winning social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become tour guides in their own cities. Passionate about social impact, storytelling, and community empowerment, Zakia launched Invisible Cities in 2016 to challenge perceptions of homelessness and provide meaningful opportunities for people to share their experiences and knowledge through unique walking tours.
Currently UK based, her goal and mission have always been around doing tourism differently and creating a positive social impact. Encouraging people to visit our cities, and hear untold stories – taking them home and sharing them. By welcoming people into our communities we encourage visitors from near and far to leave a city better than they found it.
Originally from St Etienne in the South of France, Zakia has worked internationally on homelessness, social enterprise, and community engagement projects. Before founding Invisible Cities, she worked with the Homeless World Cup Foundation, where she saw first-hand the power of sport and community in changing lives. This experience inspired her to develop a sustainable, empowering model that provides training, development and support for people who have experienced homelessness – whether that is around confidence building, storytelling, public speaking or guiding.
Zakia moved to Edinburgh at the age of 21 and has travelled the world with her roles past and present. Under Zakia’s leadership, with her expansive knowledge of non-profits, Invisible Cities has expanded to multiple locations, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, and Cardiff, with plans to launch in new cities each year.
The enterprise is delivering award-winning tours that showcase hidden stories, local heritage, and powerful personal experiences. Her story and mission have been featured by the BBC, The Guardian, and Lonely Planet, and she continues to champion ethical tourism and social change through innovative projects.
Zakia is also active in the broader community, engaging in discussions about sustainable tourism and social entrepreneurship. She has participated in events alongside notable figures, such as Prince Harry, to promote conscious travel and community impact under the Doing Tourism Differently banner.
Zakia was also named as a National Geographic Traveller of the Year in 2024 and has won a number of travel industry awards for her work including an Arival Spotlight Award and Tourism Innovation Award.
Committed to creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds, Zakia works closely with local communities, charities, and businesses to ensure Invisible Cities remains a force for good. She is continually lobbying to ensure that misconceptions are addressed and that communities from large employers and organisations right through to individuals in the community are working together to create positive and meaningful change.
Follow Zakia on LinkedIn.
For more insights into Zakia’s work and philosophy, you can watch her TEDx talk, “Invisible People” where she discusses the importance of recognising and valuing every individual in our communities.
And as her best friend says; “you just keep walking forwards” – and that’s what we’d love for you to do with us.
Sccess is rarely a solo journey. And that has been very true for our journey at Invisible Cities.
You can hear Zakia talk about how that felt and what partnerships meant to her in the early stages of growing Invisible Cities on our TikTok.
Meaningful partnerships are the foundation of how we create a lasting impact in our cities and communities.
They are built on trust, shared values, and a common vision. Whether in business, community initiatives, or creative endeavours, these collaborations enable us to go further together than we ever could alone. At the heart of every great achievement lies a partnership that brings out the best in each of our guides, volunteers and staff, turning potential into progress and ideas into reality.
Here are just some of the incredible partners who have supported our journey so far.
From Aziza Yessi, Director of Sales:
The Mercure in Manchester give us a hotel night each month when we have visitors from the team coming to the city. It’s great to be able to partner with a hotel that has such strong sustainability and community commitments.
Our partnership with Invisible Cities works because it’s rooted in shared values: purpose, impact, and people. It is a collaboration that goes beyond business. It is about shining a light on untold stories and helping people find dignity and opportunity through connection and community.
I believe our support has been most valuable in amplifying awareness and visibility, whether it is sharing your mission with our own networks or providing a platform for your guides and team to connect with broader audiences. It has been rewarding to champion something that creates both social impact and authentic human connection.
What excites me most is the unique approach to empowerment: combining storytelling, tourism, and training to give people a renewed sense of purpose. The ripple effect that can create, makes the future incredibly inspiring.
Supporting Invisible Cities aligns beautifully with our commitment to community engagement, responsible tourism, and creating meaningful experiences. It is a reminder that hospitality isn’t just about places – it’s about people, and how we make them feel.
Find out more about conferences, events and overnight stays at Mercure Manchester Piccadilly.
From Kip Parker Head of Partnerships:
TrainSplit offer savings on train tickets with their split ticketing service and are often cheaper than booking direct and other booking sites.
They became our travel partners in March 2024 and very kindly cover all of our UK train travel for guides and staff which is invaluable when we are travelling between our cities. It also helps us to travel in a far more climate-friendly way.
Our partnership with Invisible Cities represents a shared commitment to sustainable, socially impactful travel. By covering the rail travel costs for Invisible Cities’ guides and staff, TrainSplit supports the expansion of this award-winning social enterprise Our collaboration not only enables Invisible Cities to grow its presence but also encourages travellers to explore these cities via affordable, eco-friendly train journeys. Together we are working hard to redefine tourism by finding ways to make it more inclusive, empowering, and connected to the communities it serves.
Working together has been a great way to get our name out to wider tourism audiences as well as travellers across the UK. Highlights have got to be our Head of Partnerships Kip Parker meeting Prince William at the launch of Invisible Cities in Aberdeen, as well as Director Mike attending the first ever Doing Tourism Differently event in Edinburgh. We see this as a long term partnership and the opportunity to support a great initiative as well as championing positive social impact.
You can find cheaper train tickets for your next journey on the TrainSplit website (or download their app).
From Eve Graham, Head of Social Impact at Prosper Social Finance.
Prosper Social Finance is the UK’s first socially responsible investment fund run entirely by students at the University of Edinburgh.
Our partnership with Invisible Cities enables Prosper to create a direct positive social impact on the local Edinburgh community through our social impact grants. This allows Prosper to demonstrate to our analysts and anyone in the finance and investment space that investment and social good are not mutually exclusive.
What makes this partnership particularly effective is the close working relationship we have with Zakia, who comes in each semester to speak to our analysts. She brings to life the real impact Invisible Cities has had on livelihoods, which helps our analysts truly understand where Prosper’s social impact grants are going.
The first Prosper Social Finance Conference held in January this year was an opportunity for Prosper to improve the positive social impact we generate for Invisible Cities and increase the funds we donate, beyond the social impact grants. We were proud to have raised nearly £600 for Invisible Cities.
Beyond the monetary aspect, the conference gave Invisible Cities more exposure and allowed a wider range of people to hear about the enterprise.
I think the most exciting part of Invisible Cities is its storytelling aspect, with each tour guide having experienced homelessness or social disadvantage, they are able to show their city in different ways to the average guide. It is promising that training encourages the guides to deliver their own personalised tours.
We chose to partner with Invisible Cities using a framework to select an enterprise that aligns with our core values and motivations. Invisible Cities was the perfect fit and allows us to have a more significant positive social impact as a small, student-led community-interest company. Invisible Cities also gives Prosper a great opportunity for direct volunteerism.
From Jonathan Coleman C0-CEO UnTours Foundation and CEO UnTours.
As the world’s first Certified B Corporation, UnTours has spent more than 50 years offering slow, responsible travel across Europe. We believe that tourism should leave communities better than it found them.
Small businesses like Invisible Cities show that tourism can be community-rooted, socially impactful, and intentional about creating solutions to local challenges. By training people who have experienced homelessness to lead walking tours, Invisible Cities is using tourism to create new economic opportunities and shift public perception. This is exactly why we launched the Reset Tourism Fund: to support entrepreneurs who are using tourism to address some of society’s most pressing issues.
We hope our support can help Invisible Cities grow its presence across the UK and beyond, making it possible to bring their business model to new communities. Their work demonstrates how tourism, when done intentionally, can uplift people and places that are often excluded from the benefits of travel.
Invisible Cities is a unique and powerful example of how tourism can be used for good. By centering people who have experienced homelessness, the business model opens up new opportunities for the guides’ personal transformation as well as travellers’ understanding of the challenges faced by the guides. As homelessness is a global issue, and we believe Invisible Cities has the potential to inspire other tourism businesses around the world to rethink how they can better support those in need of job opportunities and support in their communities.
Invisible Cities is a perfect partner in that vision in the UK for our travellers, showcasing how travel can create meaningful change for people and places alike. The UnTours Foundation is incredibly proud to support the growth of Invisible Cities, as the social enterprise aligns with our goals and values of our Reset Tourism Fund: to make travel more meaningful, inclusive, and sustainable.
Goodness: Homeless Tour Guides
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Authentic storytelling
All of the Invisible Cities walking tour guides have lived experience of homelessness. We work closely with charities and support services to deliver training, mentoring and support to people looking for new career opportunities. Our guides then start designing and delivering their own personally themed tours—no “label-tourism,” just real human stories.
See what Smiley Movement had to say about our tours.
Social enterprise with our full impact reinvestment
All of our profits fund further development, training, advocacy, and community events like street barbers and Christmas care packages.
Franchise-ready for global growth
We have a replicable, “social-franchise” model with whereby cities across the world are able to work with us to launch Invisible Cities tours, helping local people who have experienced homelessness to access training and new work opportunities.
Corporate & community partnerships
We are very lucky to work with a number of partners across our cities to deliver tours and spread the word. We also receive invaluable financial support from some of our partners, like our travel partner TrainSplit who provide us with train tickets and funding
Free tours for marginalised groups
We set aside a number of community tours every month to gift to charities, organisations and individuals who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access them. That might be refugees and others who are new to a city, people who’s second language is English or community groups running social impact projects.
Award‑winning tourism innovation
We are very lucky to have been recognised by a number of important awards including the Lonely Planet Best in Travel, Arival Spotlight Innovation Award, National Geographic Traveller of the Year and more.
Educational outreach & media presence
We work hard to take an educational approach to everything we do, sharing our mission and values in schools, universities and workplaces. We also speak at lots of tourism events about doing tourism differently and tourism with social impact.
Our work has been featured across the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and more. Our founder Zakia also did a TedX talk about our story.