I spoke today to Mike Sparrow, Ops Manager at Kemble. He has confirmed that the info about everyone wearing hi-viz was sent to based operators only and does not apply to visitors.
For visitors he wants one person in the group to be wearing hi-viz while airside and he wants them to keep the group together. His concern has been that in the past groups of "escorted" visitors have not been kept togther and have straggled all over the place. You can see that a group of schoolkids or (even worse) photocopier salesmen on a corporate jolly being walked between AV8 and the hangars could cause some worry as they pass the fuel point and taxying aircraft or helos with rotors turning.
I've suggested that he needs to deal with the problem using different wording and by changing teh rules relating to groups. After all hi-viz won't prevent someone who is going to walk into rotating machinery from doing so.
Constructive suggestions to
[email protected] (sending abuse will only prevent the good ideas from being seen)
Personally I don't think it should be necessary for pilots or passengers to wear hi-viz while transferring from aircraft to landside and vice versa. However if someone wants to go further than that, e.g. to do some photography with permission then I don't think it unreasonable that they should be suitably attired to improve their visibility from the tower.