1. Indriani Oktavyanthi
2. Novilia Ningrum
A tour guide a person who guides groups or individual tourists to show them and interpret the cultural and natural heritage of the area they visit; a person who also posses knowledge of contemporary social and political life of a specific area. Below is how to become a tour guide.
1. Looking for Opportunities- Look online for a variety of job postings. Tour guides work at parks, historic homes, sightseeing companies, cruise ships, and many other locations. Consider where you’d most enjoy working. Narrow your search to those types of positions.
- Take tours to see which ones you like. In order to decide where you want to work, attend a variety of tours. Go to museums and historic homes in your area and book a tour on a sightseeing bus. Make note of the pros and cons of different kinds of tour guide jobs.
- Take notes to record your thoughts about different tours. When you go on tours, be sure to bring a notebook with you to keep track of your thoughts about the experiences.
- Check out tour guide associations’ websites. Many cities, countries, and regions have professional organizations of tour guides.
- Visit your local travel agency to pick up brochures. Travel agencies may partner up with local sightseeing companies for advertising.
- Contact major sightseeing companies in your area. Especially if you live in a big city or even a larger town, there are probably sightseeing companies right down the road from you. Get in touch with these companies via email or phone and ask whether they’ve got openings.
2. Getting Hired
- Pass any necessary exams for your area. Many cities and countries require tour guides to pass exams before they can lead groups. Some sightseeing companies may require you to pass this exam before you even apply for positions.
- Get training to gain experience and contacts. Professional tour guide associations and groups like the International Guide Academy in Denver, Colorado offer classes to professionalize guides.
- Take classes in relevant fields to expand your knowledge. If you live near a local university or community college, check out the course listings. If there are offerings in linguistics, leadership, hospitality, and/or tourism, register.
- Get a hospitality or tourism degree if you can afford it. While a degree like this won’t guarantee you a job as a guide, it’ll show your potential employers that you’ve got some basic skills in the field.
- Apply for positions online or in person. Once you’ve chosen a few different companies that you’d like to work for, fill out their applications by going online or picking up a paper application from the company. You’ll need to provide your contact information, employment history, a few good references, and a resume.
- Be prepared to answer tailored application questions. Tour guiding companies will want your application to show that you’re ready to be a tour guide. Their questions may be designed to see how you’ll handle crises, to check if your personality is right for guiding, and to make sure you’re excited to be a tour guide.
- Accept the best offer you receive. If you’re lucky enough to receive multiple offers, make a pros and cons list. Consider the locations, work hours, and salaries.
- Embrace being around people when you’re working. Being a tour guide means you need to be a people person. Be prepared to answer questions constantly, handle difficult personalities, and herd groups of people around interesting sites and locations.
- Absorb and memorize lots of information to be a good guide. Your primary job is to give people interesting facts about the places you visit. Take time learning about those places.
- Act fast when something goes wrong. When you’re coordinating people, travel plans, and site visits, there’s a lot of opportunity for crisis! Don’t panic if someone gets sick, your tour bus breaks, or a park randomly closes for the day.
- Be prepared to be a freelance worker. One of the hardest aspects of being a tour guide is that you’re usually hired as a temporary worker.
- Put your needs last when guiding a group. Remember that your group is on vacation, and you’re at work.
- Understand the physical requirements. Being a tour guide requires you to be on your feet and walking around most days. You’ll need to be physically healthy and fit to keep up with the rhythm of this work life.
- Be a storyteller to make facts interesting to your audience. To keep your tours moving and engaging, tell stories. Don’t just recite a list of names, dates, and events. Give your audience something to grab onto by narrating short stories at different spots along the tour with beginnings, middles, and climatic endings.
Educational Requirements to Become a Tour Guide
Depending on the employer, you likely won’t need post-secondary education to become a tour guide. Of course, having post-secondary education can be of substantial value, both in setting your resume ahead of the pack, and in providing you with skills, knowledge and competencies that can be applied to a career as a tour guide. Classes in linguistics, leadership, team building, public speaking, hospitality and tourism will help you quite a bit in this career.
The job of a tour guide also requires knowledge that isn’t necessarily taught in colleges or universities. This knowledge typically includes first aid and CPR training, specific knowledge of the area or establishment being toured, or subjects related to the tour such as local cultural information. Much of this knowledge is typically either acquired through a brief training course prior to commencing the employment term, or it is acquired on the job.
Tour Guide Job Description
Tour guides are responsible for escorting individuals and groups of people on tours. They must find out about the groups and individuals they will be guiding in order to select points of interest and provide commentary that is appropriate for their age and interests.
Tour Guide Job Duties
• Receive information from tour manager concerning the age, interests and other relevant information about the tourists
• Greet tourists and describe the content and length of the tour
• Conduct tours of cities, landmarks, local points of interest, historical sites and other locations
• Provide information about the area, including facts that may be of interest to the group
• Distribute information and promotional materials to tourists
• Answer any tourist questions
• Ensure that tourists adhere to rules and regulations of tour company and specific destinations
• Implement emergency evacuation procedures if necessary
Who Hires Tour Guides?
Tour guides may be employed on a seasonal, full-time, part-time or volunteer basis by the following types of organizations:
• Tour operating companies
• Wildlife parks
• Amusement parks
• Museums
• Historical sites
• Cruise ships
• Self-employed
