Oakland bus tours bring city's shining qualities to light

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Buses packed with passengers are now rolling through the streets of Oakland, but they're not filled with commuters or tourists.

The Tourism Bureau in Oakland is offering tours to people who already know the city but perhaps not as well as they think.

The idea is to improve the city's image and promote it to visitors.

It's a bus tour for those who already work in Oakland but may not know all of the city's shining qualities.

"Our goal is to have you be able to talk to Oakland, to speak to Oakland, to get people excited about Oakland and not encourage them to just go, you know, what's going on in Oakland, go to San Francisco," Visit Oakland's Kim Bardakian said.

From Lake Merritt to the Piedmont Theatre, or lesser known facts.

The tour is sponsored by Visit Oakland and the participants are all working in the city already on the front lines, trying to sell it to visitors.

"I think a lot of people go over the bridge, go to San Francisco, but Oakland's a gem and I think people should spend time here," Oakland resident Sascha Brown said.

Among the things learned on the tour is that Oakland isn't just home to the Warriors, it's where both the Mai Tai and Fantasy Football were invented.

The program has been in the works for a year but now Oakland is trying to build on the big momentum created by the Warriors' championship season.

"That all helps generate awareness of Oakland and people say, 'I had no idea it was that pretty,'" Bardakian said.