Roles and Responsibilities

In this course, tour guides and prospective tour guides will explore the roles and responsibilities of a tour guide and what it takes to become a tour guide. 

Who is this course for? 

The course is intended for tour guides and prospective tour guides and anyone interested in the topic.

What will you learn? 

• You will understand the roles and responsibilities of a tour guide
• You will get to know the requirements of becoming a tour guide
• You will explore different specializations as well as dos and don’ts of the profession

 
Keywords: Sustainability, tour guiding, responsibilities, requirements for tour guides, specializations

Introduction to Being a Tour Guide

Lesson 1: Introduction to the “Tour Guiding”

Guidance: Hello and welcome to this e-learning course on Tour Guiding. My name is Sarah and I’ll be guiding you through the course. I’m originally from the UK, but I’ve been working as a tour guide around the world for many years, most recently mainly in the Caucasus.

I’d like to work with you to address a variety of tour guiding topics in eight learning units. These include introductory themes such as the distribution of roles and responsibilities, as well as other key topics such as tour group management and health and safety.

Of course, I won’t neglect practical application. Together we’ll take a look at the skill sets tour guides need to have. This section will also include sensitive topics such as customer complaints and emergencies. I’ll also highlight two types of tour guiding in particular: culture guiding, and nature and adventure guiding. Although very different, they both offer their own charms and challenges.

The eight learning units function independently of one another, so you can work on them in any order, although I’d recommend starting with unit 1. And there’s no need to worry that you’ll now have to listen to hours of lectures from me. Far from it. All the units contain a variety of texts, podcasts, video tutorials and webinars filling them with life. On top of that, we have some fascinating interviews with experts, which you’ll also find in the learning units. And there’ll be a task or two for you too.

So let’s get started with the first learning unit. This unit focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the guide profession. We’ll take a look at a tour guide’s tasks and find out what the requirements of the profession are. We’ll also look at changes in the tourism industry and the impact they have on the profession. So let’s get started!

 “Mastering Local Wildlife” as a directive for a tourist guide implies acquiring an in-depth understanding of the native flora and fauna. This encompasses knowing the various species of plants, animals, birds, and insects that are indigenous to Uganda’s diverse ecosystems. Here’s what it means for a tourist guide:

Expertise in Species Identification: A tourist guide should be able to identify and provide information about the different wildlife species encountered during safaris. This includes knowledge of both common and rare species.

Behavioral Insights: Understanding the behaviors of local wildlife adds depth to the safari experience. Guides should be able to explain animal habits, migration patterns, and interactions within their natural habitats.

Environmental Significance: Guides should convey the ecological importance of various wildlife species to tourists. This includes explaining their role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems and contributing to biodiversity.

Conservation Awareness: Mastery of local wildlife involves being aware of conservation challenges and initiatives. Guides can educate tourists on the importance of preserving these species and their habitats.

Enhanced Tourist Engagement: Providing detailed information about the wildlife enhances the engagement of tourists. Guides can share interesting facts, stories, and ecological connections, making the safari more informative and enjoyable.

Adaptability to Seasons: Wildlife behavior can vary with seasons. A well-versed guide should be able to adapt their narrative based on the time of year, considering factors like migration, breeding seasons, and climate.

Safety Considerations: Understanding the behavior of wildlife is crucial for ensuring the safety of tourists. Guides must be able to anticipate and manage situations where wildlife encounters could pose risks.

Cultural Significance: Some wildlife species may hold cultural significance in local communities. Guides should be able to share cultural stories and traditions related to certain animals, enriching the cultural experience for tourists.

Responsible Tourism Promotion: By mastering local wildlife, guides can contribute to promoting responsible tourism. This involves educating tourists on ethical behavior during wildlife encounters and the importance of minimizing their impact on the environment.

Passion and Enthusiasm: Mastery of local wildlife is not just about knowledge; it’s about passion. Guides who are genuinely enthusiastic about the wildlife they showcase can inspire tourists and foster a deeper appreciation for Africa’s natural treasures.

Lesson 2: Introduction to Tour Guiding

Insights
 Tour guides are responsible for a variety of tasks, ranging from caring for a group of people through to organizational management and ensuring health and safety. They also need to be able to inform, explain and teach people about the historical, geographical, geological, political and biological backgrounds of the area visited.

However, there is neither a defined job outline nor any formal criteria when it comes to entering the tour guide profession. So far there are no standardized training requirements across countries. Some countries, though, have established specific qualification frameworks and offer nationally accredited tour guiding training courses. These help regulate access to guiding jobs within the travel industry. It’s therefore important to find out in advance what formal qualifications are expected in your country. In Germany, for example, most companies expect you to have a regional education or training.

Due to the variety of challenging tasks, tour guides need to possess a variety of knowledge and skills.

Beyond these, there are company or country requirements as well as specific qualities which are a prerequisite for the role. Many tour operators want their guides to have a higher education, such as a bachelor’s degree for example. And most companies expect applicants to have a broad range of skills and competencies. I’ve summarized the skills and competencies in the following lesson.

What it Takes to Be a Tour Guide

Lesson 1. Skills and competencies

Resilience/ working under pressure

Higher-than-average physical and psychological capacity 

To be knowledgeable

Tour guides possess extensive knowledge about local backgrounds

Excellent organizational competencies

To be able to organize daily programme and managing multi-stakeholder relationships as well as customers 

Very good language skills

Knowledge of English language as well as local language, knowledge of customers’ language desirable 

Excellent verbal communication skills

Presenting information and communicating with range of customers and service providers from different backgrounds

Methodological knowledge

Providing instructions and planning tour programme 

Customer service skills

An empathetic approach to customers/ participants needs, sensitivity and understanding, in particular when problems occur 

Conflict-related skills & leadership

Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations, the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure, moderation and mediation of conflicts

Ability to work well with others

Working as team and with service providers e.g. coach drivers, hotel staff, local tour guides etc. 

Self-initiative behavior

To be flexible and open to change, adaptable to changing circumstances, maintaining good health and self-confidence, willingness to improve quality through professional development and training 

IT and administrative skills

To be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device, using different media and technology

Now it’s up to you. You now have an overview of the required skills and competences. What are the requirements in your country and how many of the skills and competences could you already tick off on a checklist? To find out, I have put together some tasks for you here.

Research

Research the job entry requirements for tour guides in your country. Identify potential employers and enquire about company-specific skills and competencies required for the role.

Identify

Identify training courses and professional development opportunities for tour guides in your country

Write

Write your own skills check list, identify which tour guide skills you possess. Which areas of competencies are you still lacking/would need further training?

Further material can be found on the websites of the Federal Association of the German Tourism Industry and the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations linked below.

Lesson 2. Tasks and responsibilities

Success Factor:

The primary task of a tour guide is to ensure the success of a trip or part of the trip that is in his area of responsibility. His duties already start prior to the group arrival with preparation and planning work. His responsibility is the success of the tour, whilst on tour and beyond the end of the trip in form of follow-up

Representative: Tour guides are representatives of the travel company or the tour operator. They represent their interests and are responsible for handling all administrative tasks. They also work as mediator between travel agent and partner agencies

Contact Person: They are the main contact person for customers’ problems and complaints which they have to solve on-site and to report to the travel organizer. They are also ensuring ongoing quality control of the travel product. Their reports and coverage on-site help to improve the travel product.

The Tasks of tour guides include:

• Management and accomplishment of tour and tour components 
• Leadership, supervision and safeguarding of participants 
• Delivering factual content and information
• Interpreting cultural and natural heritage of country/region 
• Representation of country or region, facilitate intercultural understanding and learning
• Assessment of travel product, circumstances and service providers, quality assurance 
• Advice and communication, advice on vacation planning, sale of additional services
• Develop new travel ideas, tour program and product, service providers/attractions etc.
• Administration and organization, handling complaints, reporting and evaluation  
• Respect the authenticity of heritage sites by communicating the significance of their historic function and cultural value
• Avoid inaccurate or inappropriate interpretation including the use of preconceived notions, cultural clichés and historic versions which are ethno, culturally or nation centric; and
• Prevent inappropriate and irresponsible behaviour from tourists towards the sites and populations

The duties and responsibilities of a tour guide are all well and good in theory, but what does it actually look like in practice? I asked a colleague of mine from Georgia about this and asked him to tell us about his experiences on this topic and about his work as a tour guide in Georgia. You can watch the video here.

Guidance

Everything starts with an idea. A guide has to have a clear idea what he or she is going to present the tourist. Then also, each tour has to have its clear message, this narration on which the certain places, certain streets and paths and buildings we will be adding as the background of the topic, or as the main components to be discussed. And of course, the ending point! The starting and ending point should accomplish the final mission and the idea of the tour. And the tour, of course, has to include at least one or several top stories or places or some legends or some adventures in order to make that more memorable for the guests.

During the tour, the guide is the most reliable, the most responsible person. So his messages or her messages have to be very clear and understandable, on the one hand, and all the other hand, the information and the tips what he delivers to the guests have to be meaningful. So that’s the basic things.

During the tour the main thing is information. But information is very diverse. So if the guide jokes and makes some kind of jokes, in order to amuse the group, he has to think of the guests, because they might come from different, different backgrounds. So not everyone, not all of them might perceive that joke in this a certain way.

The second thing is that about the body language. Yeah, the guides will always like to show some things where and give some directions with our hands. But we also think of our gestures in order to avoid some dual understanding of some of the gestures, because in some countries some gestures don’t mean the same thing as it means in the other countries.

As for visual presence, like pictures and maps, there are always welcomed because they always clarify some historical movements, some historical moments of a certain place and the guide should take some pictures with him, with her in the bag, and at certain places and at certain moments is always good to show them. And of course the places. The location also plays a crucial role, because there are certain points in the cities, in the villages, wherever the tourists held, which really has its destination. First, because of the size of the group, it’s kind of easy to manage with a big or small size of the group. And of course, the background what is shown from that perspective. So, think about the places and of course think about timing, because staying at one place more than 10 minutes might be, for some people, boring.

In my opinion, every guide has to know at least some basic facts about the heritage of historical and cultural context as well as natural context of the country because the guests might ask certain questions about them. And plus, the tour becomes more interesting and fascinating when the guide touches the certain topics from historical, cultural and natural diversity of the country. It’s always worth for the guide to say some essential things about the country in order to make it easier for the guests to link it to the things that they know well. For instance, Georgia has incredible wines, and it’s the place where the oldest wine was made in the world.

There are two types of tours that can be divided into two big groups: the paid tours and the tip-based tours. Paid tours have their certain prices which also includes the price of the travel, price of certain food or museum tickets and so on and on. As for the tip-based tours, so they totally depend on the guests’ generosity. So the guide has to warn and has to explain the concept of the tip-based tour before the tour starts.

Being a guide, it’s not only a job. It’s a very interesting way of life in order to discover something new and that to transform it as a very valuable information for the guests. You might also find new inspirations to make new roads or to improve and make your tour more interesting and engaging.

It’s always a good idea to establish an e-mail-based system of registration. This will make the guide easier to communicate with the guests, to equip with all the necessary information and the tips and in regard get more positive reviews in social networks

Lesson 3. Importance of the Tour Guide

The planning and implementation of a trip consists of different services: Find out what tasks are associated with the services.

The tour operator: The tour operator takes care of travel planning, organization and accounting, advertising through brochures, magazines, website and internet, contacts to travel agencies, training of tour guides.

The travel agencies: The travel agencies establish contact with the customer, mediate between the customer and the operator, give detailed explanations of the destinations, and send the travel documents.

The service Providers: The service providers deliver the services on site on behalf of the organizer: e.g. hotels, restaurants, agencies, bus companies, tour guides.

These individual services are combined by the tour guide, sometimes in cooperation with local tour guides, and form a unique travel product and tour guides play therefore a vital role for the company, the customer and the country visited. 

I have summarized the importance of the tour guide for the company, the participants and the country visited in the hotspots.

Tour guides play a special role between tour operator, participants and service providers and they are also important for the country being visited. I have developed the following two tasks for you with this in mind.

• Triangle: Organiser, service provider, customer. Describe where you would position yourself as tour guide within this triangle.
• Describe tour guides’ services and main benefits for: Tour Operator, customers/participants and your country. 

Importance of the tour guide for the country visited:

• Providing balance and mediation between the interests of the organizer, customers and local service providers.
• Representative of his people, diplomat of his country of origin
• Image building for the country visited, reduction of prejudices.

Importance of the tour guide for the participants

• Organizer and friendly assistance for all guests
• Implementation of the advertised program, providing all presented services
• Ongoing support in the event of problems (eg. Consideration of diabetics vegetarians, accidents and injuries)
• Mediator for the foreign country and culture
• Competent advice (also for leisure activities, restaurants, shopping opportunities)
• Help with language difficulties
• Only contact person (representative) of the organizer to communicate needs, expectations, questions, complaints, Guests don’t feel left alone

Importance of the tour guide for the company

• Tour guide is usually the only representative of tour operator with whom the guests meet. Immage effect for the company
• Control of service providers on site, quality control and assurance
• Successful fulfilment of the advertised program
• Professional and immediate processing and settlement of customer complaints
• Flexible re-arrangement or alternative design of the tour program in difficult situations
• Procurement support (eg. Suggestions for alternative travel accomodation, program items)
• Protecting company’s interests vis-à-vis service providers and customers

 The Requirements for Being a Tour Guide

Lesson 1. Legal requirements

In every profession, professionals are guided by a Code of Conduct/Ethics and they are expected to meet certain legal requirements.  In this section of the learning unit, I would like to take a closer look with you at the Code of Conduct/Ethics and Code of Tour Guiding Practice as well as other legal requirements for the tour guide profession.

Employment Law:

Companies hire people to represent and work for them. There are certain legislations for them to adhere to. Some of the legislation affecting employment include: employment contracts, redundancy, wrongful or unfair dismissal, health and safety and equal opportunities

 Legal Contracts:

A contract is a defined agreement between two or more parties and is intended to be legally binding. If there is failure to meet the contract, which is an offence against civil law. There will be need for compesation or damages for reasonable costs. The case will be assessed by court of law or privately between the company and the customer.

Tour guide insurance:

Tour guides are expected to have liability insurance and insolvency protection as basic legal cover in place. Additional cover (e.g. accidents, illness, sickness, incapacity, legal cover etc) is advisable. Tour operators may request additional insurances depending on national legislation and requirements as well as customers country of origin. Depending on type of contract between tour guide and tour organiser (employed or fleelance), tour guides may be covered under the tour organisers insurance scheme for eg. Accidents and injuries, sickness cover, public liability etc.

Definition / Types of Legal Contracts

Every creative endeavor requires that you take risks. If you try and don’t succeed, you’ve still learned something. It took Thomas Edison more than 10,000 tries to invent a viable lightbulb. You’re not failing. You’re discovering what doesn’t work

Example: European Package Travel Directive

European tour operators are working in compliance with the European Package Travel Directive. Tour operators outside the European Union are not legally bound by the European Package Travel Directive, but European operators will expect their foreign suppliers to have relevant liability insurance in place so they can make sure that their customers are protected according to the Directive

Definition Ethics and Ethical behavior

Ethics:

Moral principles, standards of conduct (behaviour), or set of values governing proper behaviour in the workplace. Moral rules, ways of behaving, or a set of values that show proper behaviour in the workplace.

Ethical behaviour: 

Always acting within rules of correct moral behaviour or following acceptable professional ways of doing things.

The legal requirements are an important topic that you need to know about. I have therefore created some tasks that can serve as a guideline for you to deal with this topic.1

1. Research and identify the legal employment framework for Tour Guides in your country.2

2. Research professional Tour Guide associations in your country, entry requirements and membership benefits.3

3. Research the Code of Guiding Practice in your country. Alternatively, write a Code of Conduct for your organization.4

4. Study the GDPR (https://gdpr-info.eu/). What can you do with customers’ data and what not?

More insights

Welcome to our first expert interview. Today I’d like to welcome Florian Dukic, with whom I’ll be discussing the topic of legal requirements in tour guiding. We’ll focus in particular on the contracts which need to be drawn up between individual parties. And that leads to my first question: Who does a tour guide typically agree contracts with?

Well, that depends very much on the size of your business. Of course, independent of your size, you will have service contracts in place. Those service contracts are concluded with your end consumer clients as well as your business tour operator clients. And these are the most central contracts that you will have in place. If you’re a larger business, you may have employees, so you will have employment contracts in place, defining the duties and obligations of your employees, as well as their rights towards you. Moreover, if you’re a larger business, you may have subcontractors, who on your behalf provide services to your clients. And of course, these subcontractors will then have their service contracts which define the services that they owe to you.

So there are clearly several parties that can play a role. What kind of contents do the contracts typically contain?

Well, if we look at the service contracts, those being the most central ones, you would of course typically define your duties and obligations as regards your services in those contracts. You would have warranties in place, if those are required. You would have regulations that pertain to questions of liability and indemnity in place. And very importantly, you will have financial conditions, payment conditions, conditions as regards your remuneration as well as cancellation policies in place in those contracts.

Now here’s something I’ve always wondered about. Are individual tour guides generally fairly free when it comes to drafting their service contracts?

Yes, in general they are. They are fairly free to define the contents of their contracts, but factually, as well as legally, there are restrictions. If we look at the legal restrictions, especially consumer law for example, may dictate certain elements that you need to be compliant with. You have to look into the law, what the law tells you, as regards consumer law, rights that your private and consumer clients may have. Moreover, you may underlie certain factual and commercial restrictions. Those commercial restrictions will normally be dictated by your business clients. They may be the larger businesses and they may then dictate what exactly they require from you. And you are of course free to define what you want to do. But you are, you have competition and you would have to look whether you are prepared to comply with their demands or whether this is not possible for you.

It’s really interesting to see what a tour guide needs to take into account. Is there anything else they need to consider?

Well, very importantly, what you would want to consider is applicability of law as well as jurisdiction, especially if you are working on an international basis with tour operators that are domiciled abroad. Moreover, of course, what’s very important is that you have provisions in place that ensure the mitigation of your default risk, meaning that ideally, you should have payment conditions in place that ensure a certain degree of payment, ideally, before you provide your services or shortly after you provide your services. You don’t want to run after your money. Moreover, also force majeure clauses may be very relevant. Just look at COVID and COVID related problems. Many contracts didn’t include force majeure clauses and that in turn led to a lot of turmoil and confusion.

That’s given us some great insights into the topic. Many thanks to you, Mr Dukic, and many thanks too to our viewers. I’m already looking forward to our next conversation.

The legal requirements are an important topic that you need to know about. I have therefore created some tasks that can serve as a guideline for you to deal with this topic.

• Research and identify the legal employment framework for Tour Guides in your country.
• Research professional Tour Guide associations in your country, entry requirements and membership benefits.
• Research the Code of Guiding Practice in your country. Alternatively, write a Code of Conduct for your organization.
• Study the GDPR (https://gdpr-info.eu/). What can you do with customers’ data and what not?

Lesson 2. Definitions and career path

The term “Tour guide” and its definition may differ between countries and according to requirements and responsibilities. The position in the tourism sector is usually given by the vocational associations, common practices, and by legislation. In tourism terms, reference to a person involved in tours and working with tour participants are carefully distinguished. There are three different professions:

Behind the tiles I have noted the respective definitions for the profession for you.

Tourist guide

Tourist guide or Tour Guide is a person who guides visitors in the language of their choice and interprets the cultural and natural heritage of an area, a person normally possessing an area-specific qualification, usually issued and/or recognized by the appropriate authority. A tourist guide is a synonym to a local tourist guide, because their obligations and functions on tour are the same.

Tour manager

Tour manager is a person who manages and supervises the itinerary on behalf of the tour operator, ensuring the program is carried out as described in the tour operator’s literature and sold to the traveler/consumer, and a person who gives local practical information. 

Tour escort

Tour escort is a representative of a tour operator providing basic assistance to travelers.

The professions shown, especially that of the tour guide, are often specialized and place a corresponding focus on the content of the tour.

• On-site guides conduct a tour of a specific building or limited area/attractions. 
• City guides. To explore a city by coach, van, taxi, hop-on/hop-off bus or walking tour, city guides point out and comment on the city highlights and attractions.
• Driver guides are city guides or tour guides driving the vehicle.
• Personal or private guides might be taxi-drivers using their vehicle for private/exclusive tours.
• Specialized guides have particular skills highly unique e.g. hiking or bike tours, rafting or canoeing, some more physically demanding or unusual.
• Step-on guides are specialists, joining a group to provide specialist and informed interviews about a city or attraction.
• Shore-excursions guides providing excursions for cruise ships.
• Shore-excursion managers are responsible for promoting and selling excursions.

Different countries have different meanings of each of these terms, and have different legal settings and requirements for tour guides and their education. 

Recap: What was that again?

1. Describe the difference between tour guide, tour manager and tour escort.

2. Research the tour guide profession in your country. What are the terms you use? What are the legal and educational requirements for each guide profession?

Being a Tour Guide

Lesson 1: Facilitator or animator?

Description
 Tour guides fulfil a variety of different tasks during a tour, ranging from ensuring organizational and administrative management and health and safety to informing, explaining and teaching guests about the country and culture visited. They make use of a variety of different skills in order to meet customers needs for information and facilitation of the foreign culture.

A different and more playful approach to facilitating information and content is the use of animation in tour guiding. Animators come from very different professions. This includes, for example, sports or gymnastics. But a background in the arts is also a great advantage for many animators. This includes not only music and dance, but also handicrafts. Some animators also have an extended technical background and are well versed in photography, video and other media, for example. Last but not least, there are also animators who have a background in social education work such as childcare for example.

Play is a key element of animation, often involving all the senses. Experience with play can be very helpful for tour guides when welcoming guests and introducing themselves and others. An entertaining and playful style can be useful for conveying information or to entertain guests during any times when they have to wait around.

Types of animation

There are a number of ways to include animation in a guided tour. I have summarized a few for you here that I have come up with.

1. Movement and sport (e.g. 1-mile morning run, gymnastic dance, bike riding etc.)
2. Social and communication (e.g. parties of all kinds, competitions, hikes, lectures)
3. Education, discovery and experience (e.g. treasure and trail hunts, lecturers etc.)
4. Creative musical activities, hobbies (e.g. dancing, music making, crafting etc.)
5. Adventure, closeness to nature, unusual and elementary experiences (e.g. nature trails and quizzes)
6. Calm, reflection, meditation (e.g. mediation music during coach ride or reflective summary at the end of tour day)
7. Children’s club (mini club, children’s parties, fairy tale lessons)

Whilst tourist destinations and resorts use on-site animators to stimulate and engage customers through active play, animative discovery or musical activities, some tour guides may face obstacles or challenges in embedding animative elements, e.g. through space restrictions in hotel/site/coach or time constraints within the tight travel programme.

You have now heard some examples and suggestions of what is possible with animation. Below I have formulated some food for thought for you.

Think

Think of an example of discovery or creative musical activity that you could incorporate in a tour. Consider example songs or experiences which is traditional to your region/country

Discover

Is there a place/stop on the trip where you could involve the guests in a game or playful exploration?

Role play

Role play. Ask a friend or colleague to take part in an animative activity you have planned and prepared. Use the feedback to improve your performance

Lesson 2. The first impression

The first impression of tour guides is crucial for establishing successful relationships with customers. Tour guides should bear in mind that audiences may be more conventional on group tours and often attach great importance to external appearance. A well-groomed appearance signals respect for the guests.

As representative of the travel company, tour guides’ appearance and presentation have an impact on “status” and reputation with service providers.

I know from my own experience that it is not so easy to assess one’s own appearance correctly. So here is a task that can help you.

Role play: Practice your introductory talk with a friend or colleague, empathise on posture, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact. Try to find the right dose of body language according to your personal style and comfort zone.

After the do’s and don’ts on appearance, we now come to the do’s and don’ts on language and rhetoric. I found something really useful: a podcast. Two tour guides created the podcast channel and regularly produce podcast series on all kinds of topics related to tour guiding. Their names are Anna and Elias, and I will certainly introduce you to one or the other of their podcasts here.

But now let’s begin with the podcast “Language and Rhetoric”, which I have made available to you below. 

Description
[Elias] Anna, let’s talk about language and rhetoric in tour guiding today.

[Anna] That’s a great idea because it’s a really important topic. For you, tour guides out there, there are some things to bear in mind. One of them is to make sure that you speak clearly and fluently in easy to understand sentences. Take your time when speaking and opt for commonly understood words rather than a dialect. And don’t “hum” and “er” too much. 

[Elias joking] Um so you don’t think that would be OK like that? Because I think actually that that’s OK. So, basically, in principle….

[Anna] I think if you don’t do it like Elias, you’re on the safe side!

[Elias] What? That was perfect. No. Joking aside, of course it wasn’t, but you get the idea. Short, clear sentences can also always be understood better than long, meandering sentences. 

[Anna] That’s so true. And don’t be monotonous either. Try and use your voice to engage your audience. Bring excitement, life and spontaneity into your presentation.

[Elias] Yes, and I know from my own experience that there’s always a bit of nervousness, but try to relax. That’s always helped me a lot.

[Anna] Oh, and very importantly, try to avoid sounding unsure while speaking. Don’t use phrases like “I think”, “maybe” or “I would say”.

[Elias] Exactly. It’s better to use definite positive formulations and arguments. No one wants to hear sentences that start with, say, “Unfortunately”. Imagine a tour guide starting his tour with “Unfortunately, there’s not much time”, while constantly looking at his watch. It’s neither welcoming nor particularly encouraging. 

[Anna] Yeah, don’t do that. Also, use we-sentences to include your audience and the tour. For example, when you point something out, say “we see” instead of “you see”. This creates a feeling of togetherness.

 [Elias] And also pay attention to the knowledge and language level of your guests and adapt to what you’re saying accordingly. Sometimes questions from individual guests don’t reach the whole group, so it can be good to repeat them for everyone and then answer them. That way no one feels left out.

[Anna] That’s really good advice, Elias. I’m impressed.

[Elias] Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.

[Anna] Also, it’s good to use pictorial and simple language. Explain technical terms when you use them. If you have multilingual guests, by all means translate into their languages if possible. But you’ll have to balance this carefully and be very careful with irony and sarcasm.

[Elias] Ohh yes, that’s an important point. I’ve broken out in a sweat here and there on occasion. Oddly, people just don’t understand my humour. Just a couple more tips from me at the end of today’s podcast. Don’t speak too softly or too loudly, don’t talk too much in general, and don’t forget to check your microphone at the beginning of the tour.

[Anna] That covers today’s topic quite well. Thank you for listening and wherever you are, enjoy your next tour and watch your language.

[Elias] Bye guys!

After the tips from Anna and Elias, it’s your turn now.

• Role play: This time practice your introductory talk with a friend or colleague, but focus solely on your voice and language. Do you find the right tone, speed and language? Use recordings to analyze your talk.

Lesson 3. Changing tourism industry and the changing role of Tour Guides

Over the past decades, tourism has developed rapidly and has experienced continued expansion and diversification with over 1.4 billion people crossing international borders in 2019 (prior to COVID-19).

A variety of different factors and trends have an impact on the tourism industry at the local, national and global level. These range from changing customer expectations and demands, environmental issues, health and safety concerns to technological advancements. 

Find out how global trends are impacting tourism.

Health Issues

• Travel for health reasons (e.g. thermal hot springs, yoga and ayurvedic medicine, medical treatments etc. examples; sand bathing in Assuan/Egypt. Bath houses Bath/UK, plastic surgery in Thailand etc)
• Health prevention (e.g. sun exposure, food hygiene, medical infrastructure etc to avoid health risks, impact on choice of destination)
• Health concerns (e.g. HIV/AIDS, influenzas, Covid-19, impact on choice to travel or stay at home.

Environmental Issues and Climate Change

• Natural disasters (e.g. tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes etc), no control or prediction.
• Adverse weather conditions, causes travel disruptions and impact on travel choices
• Environmental disasters and accidents (e.g. oil spills, contamination, etc)

 Innovations in technology

• Travel speed and journey time, to explore far destinations or spend more time and money
• Online booking and remote travel advice
• Virtual tours, experience of a country from home, no engagement in smell and taste
• Niche travel (e.g. space travel)

Customer demand

• Change of customer needs and demands, e.g. destinatio, travel products, frequency, duration
• Greater “experience”, greater “wanderlust”, eg. More value-for-money
• More engagement in communities, community-based tourism
• Greater environmental awareness, demands for sustainability on product and service providers.

Recession and financial crisis

• Change of customer spending, people spend income on other ways besides travelling
• Less revenue and employment for tourism/hospitality industry
• More domestic travel and less international travel

Stability and security

• Political stability or instability, changes to countries’ governance or administration
• Political unrest and travel warnings, people refuse to travel for leisure/amend travel plans
• Stable governments, choice as holiday destination

What is the situation in your country?

Identify current issues tourism is facing in your country. Describe economic, socio-cultural, physical/environmental and technological factors.

Traditional ways of tourism, globally and on national and local scale, have changed due to a variety of different factors, changed customer demands and the needs of tourists. Professional tour guides need to adapt quickly to meet customers’ new expectations and varied needs.

Changing Role of Tour Guide:

In recent years, the perception of heritage has been widened. Today’s customers request a much broader approach and information to natural, environmental, cultural, artistic and intangible heritage. This requires much greater preparation and knowledge by professional tour guides, e.g. professional training and preparation in order to fulfil their role as interpreters of different types of heritage.  

In addition, factors such as innovations and emergences in new technologies, changes to the travel product and attractions as well as health and safety concerns have contributed to a shift of the role/tasks of tour guides.

Changing Skills and Responsibilities:

Today, tourists have access to a variety of different media to retrieve and process information about destinations and cultures (e.g. internet, mobile phones, podcasts, audio guides and MP3, geographic information and guidance by GPS etc.) and they have become less tolerant of mistakes made by tour guide professionals. Tour guides as transmitter/facilitator of plain information are not required any more.

Instead, tour guides require a much deeper and broader knowledge. They need more flexible and appropriate attitudes to different situations of everyday life and an adapted behaviour more suited to the culture of the tourists (e.g. intercultural awareness and skills).

Changing role of tour guides

There are some aspects related to the tasks of a tour guide that have become more relevant, while others have become less important. Due to the changing role of tour guides, there are some skills that are more important now than ever before. You can find more information on all three points below.

Increasingly relevant tasks

• Protecting tourists and the host community
• Control and professional leadership of the group 
• Interpreting and protecting heritage 
• Mediation and conflict management

Skills and responsibilities more important than ever

• Leadership (especially for safety and security) 
• Communication/interpretation (psycho-social/encouraging change in values) 
• Mediation (avoiding misunderstandings and conflicts)
• Sustainability (managing/protecting resources) 
• Education (from an intercultural perspective) 

Less important tasks

• A plain informative role 
• The role of entertainer 
• Pathfinder

You have successfully completed the first learning unit of the course “Digital Tour Guiding”. I look forward to seeing you again in the next learning unit.