Travel Guide

Are you one of those people who love to show outsiders the best places to visit where you live? If so, a career as a travel guide would be perfect for you. Travel guides must have immense knowledge about every aspect of the place they specialize in. This career is generally limited to friendly people with excellent communication skills.

Travel guides are generally people who have great observation and research skills. They must be able to speak clearly and loudly, and be well versed about historical and geographical aspects of places. If you feel you have excellent leadership qualities, this might be the job for you.

A job as a travel guide entails enabling visitors to experience a specific or several specific local activities to the fullest. Travel guides may be hired at a particular tourist destination, or be hired through a travel agency. Travel guides generally spend an entire day, or even more, with a group of tourists, taking them to various landmark spots in a particular area. Tour guides, on the other hand, normally specialize in giving tours of one particular tourist destination.

Travel guides are required to have great historical and geographical knowledge. They may specialize in certain types of tourism. Adventure travel guides take people for adventurous trips, ones which they may not be able to fully experience without their experience and knowhow.

Most jobs provide training on how to deal with people. If you are a tour guide for a particular attraction, you are even told what to say. You just have to memorize the lines and make them sound as exciting as possible. Private travel guides may, depending on a country’s laws, require a permit from the government or the tour destination operator before practicing their profession.

Travel guides normally end up working for travel agencies, the government, tour companies or as independent guides. Most people prefer to work for private agencies or the government so that they can get proper training before they begin their work.

Tour and travel guides do not really require any education. It often helps if they can speak a wide variety of languages, as different groups of tourists have different needs. Training is normally provided before the job formally commences.

Travel guides are generally not very well paid. They usually depend on both a salary as well as tips from tourists to make their ends meet. In USA, the annual salary excluding tips is generally between USD 22,000 to USD 31,000.

In India, in particular, the base salary is very low. Working for the government or a big travel agency may give you some fringe benefits. However, you should expect a large proportion of your earnings to be tips from generous foreigners. If you are at a popular tourist spot, your earnings are likely to be higher.

Travel guides do not work desk jobs and are largely on the move during work hours. While the job might get monotonous if one becomes a tour guide for one particular destination, a

travel guide

may also go on adventures such as exploring the depths or rain forests, doing water sports and much more with tourists.

Hours and days worked by a

travel guide

may vary depending on how long he is hired for by clients. He may work a twelve hour day, or no hours at all on any given day. Travel guides’ hours are therefore quite flexible.

Travel guides get to experience some of the most phenomenal places in the world as a part of their day job. Their adventures are always funded by either their clients or their employers, depending on what their contract states.

Travel guides get to interact with people from all over the world, and get to learn a lot about cultures all over the world. They have the positive responsibility of representing the native people of the area where they work.

Travel guides are not bounded by four walls during their typical work day. They generally get a lot of exercise on the job and are able to remain fit. They receive generous tips and gratuities from their clients which give them a sense of job satisfaction.

Besides the many perks that come with a career as a travel guide, one must keep in mind that this career’s timings are never really certain. One day, you might have to work 12 hours on the stretch and the next day you might be completely free.

Moreover, the job can get a little monotonous if you are a tour guide as you have to constantly familiarize the same places to different people. It is also very physically draining, especially if the place you work has extreme temperatures.

Travel guides often have frustrating jobs trying to communicate with people who do not speak their language. They must overcome difficult communication barriers to be successful at their jobs.

There is a fair amount of competition to become tour and travel guides almost all over the world. Since the job requires minimum prior training, there are a large number of people aspiring for a job in this field.

The ability to speak several languages and communicate enthusiastically in them is likely to lower the level of cut throat competition and give you an edge. The tourism industry is likely to grow steadily over the next couple of decades so the demand for travel guides will rise more than the average rate of increase of jobs.

This career is best in areas that attract the largest number of tourists. According to experts, Paris, London, New York City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Melbourne, Sydney, Cairo, Cape Town and Moscow are great places to become travel guides. While competition in these cities can be fierce, there is a considerable demand for people in the profession.

In India, New Delhi and Mumbai attract the most tourists annually, and they are ideal places for a travel guide to make it big. A large number of foreign visitors visit national landmarks all over India, and many of them tip rather generously.