Are you passionate and knowledgeable about your locality or or city or region or country and looking forward to work as a tour guide? But, do you know what it takes to become a tour guide?
A tourist guide also knows as a ‘tour guide’ is a person who gives or assists the people who are on a tour by providing them information about a certain place or monument which has a certain cultural and historical heritage.
These events which are known as tours are organized by a particular company and they send the tour guide along with the people on tour to certain places such as museums, places of historical sites, religious places and at other venues which carry certain significance in nature.
The main knowledge that a tour guide needs to have regarding their job is about the place or venue they are about to share or discuss with the group of individuals with good presentation skills.
Though the career of being a tour guide is interesting and adventurous to some extent, there is a certain background to education along with certain basic requirements for being a tour guide, learning the life of a tourist guide, etc.
So now let us look at what are the necessities to become a tour guide.
What are the Requirements to Become a Tour Guide?
Educational Requirements:
One of the basic and most important qualifications that are required for a person who wants to be a tour guide is to be highly educated in the job and be knowledgeable of what they are doing. It depends on the person employing it when it comes to educational qualifications. The more educated the person is, the more knowledge has been acquired by that individual.
1. Post- Secondary Education:
As said above it depends on the employer, and, likely, the person wanting to be a tour guide won’t need any sort of post secondary education as a compulsion. But it is always recommended that a person having post-secondary education always carries a certain value along with it. It can help in resume preparation which is highly considered by the hiring employer and provides the person with skills.
2. Taking Prior Classes:
Taking classes to learn about the basic requirements that a tour guide needs is always considered as the best way of gaining knowledge about that particular field. These certain classes may be about skills like leadership, away in team building among the people, ways of improving public speaking, showing affection towards the tourists and getting knowledge regarding the tourism industry.
3. Mental abilities:
This kind of knowledge is not taught by the colleges and institutes as it needs to be developed by the individual within themselves. This may include having the abilities towards medical facilities and for emergency health situations such as giving CPR, knowing the surrounding area which is to be toured, subjects which are relating to the tour, etc.
4. Focusing on Studying:
It is needed that the person passes all the classes or courses taken by them successfully so that they can acquire their certificate at the first attempt for which they have enrolled their names.
The studying process should be continuous as some of the employers would also want the tour guide to take classes even after acquiring the job. The company will be monitoring the progress done by the individual in that specific term.
5. The process of applying for the Job:
In the resume prepared by the person, they need to highlight and give importance to certain things like knowledge of the destination and if the person has any experience regarding customer service.
If any studies have been done abroad, put it in the resume. It is also essential that the individual should do some research about which employer or company may suit them best. Along with this, international companies also do provide many opportunities to find success in the touring industry so even consider it.
6. Completing the Interview:
It is recommended that the person who is going for an interview for a tour guide should know about it through certain mock interviews that have been taught in the institutes. The person also needs to acquire certain skills within themselves as the certificates on the resume aren’t enough.
By demonstrating these skills during the interview, the interviewer also has a good first impression. Certain questions regarding strengths and weaknesses, the reason for applying, etc should well prepare before the interview.
What Does it Take to Be a Tour Guide?
Skills needed to become a Tour Guide:
It always knows that skills and education qualifications go hand in hand. The skills that have been developed within an individual are very necessary to carry out the daily work that comes in the life of a tour guide. Some of the possible skills mention below.
- A tour guide needs to have a friendly nature towards other people.
- The tour guide needs to be outgoing i.e. a person who loves going out, learning and exploring new things in life.
- Tour guides need to have the ability of calming people whenever required and not causing a conflict.
- Tour guides need to be polite with one another.
- They need to be patient whenever required and not get angry.
- A tour guide should always have professional behavior while carrying out the work.
- A tour guide always considers responsible first by himself and then the people around.
- A tour guide needs to have a quality of trust within.
- A tour guide always needs to be helpful and always look towards the interest and perspectives of other people or visitors.
- Tour guides always need to have the ability to take criticisms whenever they go or have done something wrong.
- Tour guides need to have the ability to interact and relating to people who belong to different religions and cultures.
- Tour guides need to stay honest at all times for anything that comes in their way.
- While selecting a job, the tour guide can also opt for being independent as a contractor other than working just as an employee.
- A tour guide needs to organize with respect toward carrying out the daily schedule and handling time.
- Also, the planning of self time needs to be minimized by the tour guide.
- The tour guide needs to be enthusiastic about carrying out the job as it may also involve others in having fun.
Life of a Tour Guide:
1. A personality of a Tour Guide:
The personality is the most important trait which describes the nature of a tour guide. It always knows that a tour guide should always consider their personality very carefully as they are in the presence of others. Their personality reflects on others from communicating about the area to other people. They need to connect with the people while sharing these facts.
2. Traveling:
With the word ‘tour’ itself, it is understood it involves traveling. That is the life of a tour guide traveling from one place to another. This helps the person in gaining knowledge about the culture regarding the particular place, noting down important observations that can be studied later and shared with the people on the tour. This helps in updating the knowledge of the person.
What Does a Tour Guide Do?
Common people in this world will think that a tour guide job is to travel different places and very easy job, but one second before thinking about all this fantasy let us point out and remind that along with advantages of visiting many places, the tour guides have lot of responsibilities to follow and it at times a strenuous job.
A tour guide mostly pictures as a man who is having a job to only travel places but it is not at all like that. There are many duties and responsibilities to handle by a tour guide.
Responsibilities and Duties of a Tour Guide:
1. Searching and removing information:
A tourist guide has to find information regarding the tourist about their interests and their age to know and to show appropriate places according to their likes and interest. For example, a tourist guide has a group of people of 10 members and those members’ ages are from 5 to 12years old.
A tourist guide has a task and challenge to take kids to such places where they won’t get bored and enjoy their moments. Therefore a tour guide has to ensure that interest and age about the following tourist.
2. Greeting and explaining about the tour:
A tourist guide has to greet all the members joined for a tour. The tourist guide has to explain all the terms and conditions of the places that they will go and what measures have to take to ensure the total safety of the tourist.
A guide will give the timings and the list of places that they will be visiting and the hotel they will be residing in. The tourist guide should find interactive ways to keep the group interesting and interacting.
3. Provide information and facts:
The tourist guide before taking all the members for a tour to different places that particular individual has to study all the facts and history of the places that have to visit so that while showing these places for the tourist it may be easy to give a tour and also all the questions which will boost up the confidence and the reputation of the agency.
4. Emergency guidelines:
The tourist guide should give all the information about the tour before starting the group so that there won’t be any confusion. The individual also has to give knowledge and awareness about the emergency precaution taken while going out for the tour. The tourist guide should give all the emergency numbers like hospital helpline, police helpline, etc.
Where Do Tourist Guide Work?
A tourist guide can hire on a contract basis or can work as a part time job. It can also take a Seasonal job to earn a little extra money. A tourist guide job is flexible and it is not so rigid compare to the other daily regular jobs.
1. Tourist Agency:
A tourist guide mainly works in a Tourist agency because it is more of a collective venture with less risk and group talent acquisition. A tourist guide sometimes thinks of becoming a sole proprietor in this business but it is often difficult to successfully succeed.
Therefore, if anyone looking for a tourist guide job they need to hunt for agencies that can hire them to become a tourist guide with less risk of failing alone and having collective support.
2. Wildlife Parks:
A Tourist guide can also work in wildlife parks but it is often difficult for a tourist guide to work in wildlife parks without any course done about the Wildlife parks tourist guide. An individual can also think to work in a wildlife park tourist guide as a career by completing the respective courses.
3. Amusements Parks:
Some of the amusement parks need tourist guides because of some places to shown and which has to visit by the tourist. The tourist guide shows different kinds of places in the amusement park so that the tourist has visited all the places and not left any places unvisited.
4. Museums:
A Tourist guide recruits in a museum to show the tourist the monuments and historic things and articles. A tourist guide has to have full knowledge about the monuments and historic resemblance kept to honor a patriot or Great achiever.
That individual should have an in and out knowledge because the tourist mainly asks a lot of questions which has to be answered by a tourist guide. Therefore a Tourist guide should do a complete survey while beginning any venture.
5. Self-Employed:
A tourist guide can also be self-employed in this venture but it is often difficult to establish a successful career alone in this stream. Capital requires and also a business plan to start with this venture because it can also create an immediate heavy loss in the business. But a tourist guide can start his agency and keep other employees under and get the work done.
In this upcoming generation, a lot of courses have been provided for the people who are looking to be a tourist guide as a career.
Thus even a tourist guide earns a respectable amount in this era when compared to the olden days where the tourist guide underappreciated and had less salary but now everything changed because of the courses offered to the students before starting with this venture.
A complete idea and concept teach to the students so that they successfully succeed in this venture.
