Nick Manning - How to be a Tour Guide: The Essential Training Manual for Tour Managers and Tour Guides

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book uses the American spelling of most common words.

www.thetourguidebook.com

Edition 4.0.5

Ive tried hard to create a book that is comprehensive, practical, and above all, useful. But please bear in mind that I dont know your personal situation and without that knowledge, I cant guarantee that results or techniques in this book will be right for you. While I sincerely hope this book will be helpful on your journey as a tour guide, for the purposes of the law this book is provided for general information only and nothing within should be considered a replacement for qualified legal or financial advice.

Throughout the book youll find that long website addresses have been shortened by use of Googles website shortening tool. For example, the link www.goo.gl/75xAAt leads to the Tour Guides and Tour Managers Facebook page . For people that have to type in links manually, this shortened address is easier to type than https://www.facebook.com/groups/354594331355805/ .

If the link is an affiliate link, I donate a percentage of earnings to charity.

T hank you for your email, I will be out of the office for the next 14 days on tour around the Greek Islands. For urgent enquiries, I can be found by the pool sipping cocktails each night between 79 p.m.

Sound crazy? Maybe. But would you want to have an email autoreply like that? Definitely.

The thought of becoming a tour guide will cross the minds of most people who travel at one point or another. Exotic locations, free travel, people hanging on to your every word I wont lie, its an amazing life! Ive worked with guided tours in over 15 countries and been an advisor on tour start-ups across three continents. Theres no better job in the world.

I first got my start in the tour guiding business, as a lot of people do, by accident. With a degree in Business and Communications, I had been working as a Marketing Manager for three years when one day I realized I was all work and no play and a very dull boy.

I quit my job on the spot, did a guided tour (as a client), and loved it so much, I applied for a job as soon as the holiday was up! I ended up working for Contiki, who are the Australian and New Zealand leaders in escorted European touring for 1835 year olds. Contiki has a reputation for hard sightseeing by day followed by hard partying each night. Their training is some of the best in the industry.

I was lucky when I started. I got to clean toilets.

Why was this lucky? Because for a year, I got to work at a Gasthof in Austria and talk to every single guide that came through. I got to pick their brains, ask them questions, and most importantly, watch them interact with clients.

Without this knowledge, I would never have been a tour guide. Without the friends I made that took me under their wings, I would have never gotten past the training trip.

Not everyone is so lucky.

During my time working as a tour guide, Ive seen literally thousands of people apply for jobs, and I have to tell you, 70% of them fail. The problem was not that they were ill suited to the job. Rather, it was simply that they were ill prepared. Unless you can somehow get on the inside, its really, really hard to get a job out there. There are no books. There are no classes. There is no way to learn what you need to know to be a success in this industry.

Until now.

This book has been designed as the ultimate training tool for tour managers. Its full of inside tips, practical advice, and expert knowledge... kind of like a tour guide now that I think of it!

Id like to acknowledge right off the bat that this book would not have been possible without a lot of help. One tour manager alone could never know everything required, in every situation, to make a complete training manual like this. This book has been checked, validated, and built with the help of friends from every corner of the world.

In particular, Id like to thank Charles from Seahorse Tours in the Philippines. Charles 30+ years in the industry have seen him own his own tour agency, guest speak at the Philippines Department of Tourism, guest examine at the International Eco-tourism Institute, and now provide valuable advice as a consultant on my book.

Much of the excellent artwork in this book has been done by the amazing Kerin Ramirez. Im absolutely blown away by the level of artistic talent this one man contains thank you Kerin for your contribution.

Finally, Id like to thank Nathan, Matt, Dana, Hans, Esther, Ducky, Tracy, Simone, Phul, Mike, June, Jeff, Kristene, Nick B, and Kate for the advice, feedback, early proofreading, and encouragement given to me as I created this book. To those that are tour managers, both named and anonymous, thank you too for the permission to use your crazy stories. Your contributions from around the world Europe, Asia, North America, the Pacific, and beyond are recognized and gratefully received.

I cant guarantee readers a job when they finish this book, but with the help of the people above, I can guarantee them a damn good fighting chance.

W hat is a tour manager? And what is a tour guide? Is there a difference? Great questions. Lets start out with setting some definitions.

• Tour Guide: An expert who shows visitors around topics of interest in an area.
• Tour Manager: Organizes and accompanies visitors on tours around topics of interest in an area. Also called a tour director or tour conductor and referred to as TM for short.

As you can see, the titles are pretty similar. Tour mangers (TM) usually tend to do a little bit more administration; tour guides (TG) usually have a little bit more specific knowledge.

But really, if you were to ask anyone in the industry, the difference is usually in the length of a tour. On short tours (under one day), the person in charge is usually called a tour guide. Theres less administration required and usually more specific knowledge needed to conduct the tour. On long tours (over one day), the person in charge is usually called a tour manager. Theres more administration and more general knowledge required.

Tip: theres an exception

T here is an exception to the rule that tour guide and tour manager are interchangeable titles. In some specific countries, a license is required to become a tour guide. These are usually countries with major historical attractions, such as Greece and Egypt. In these countries, a tour manager takes on an administrative role only and employs tour guides whenever the group tours an attraction of importance.

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N ote that a tour guide is different from a local guide , who is someone that only takes on responsibility of a tour for a brief period of time usually to guide them around an attraction. Ill describe the duties of a local guide in more detail later in this chapter.

In this book, I will use both the terms tour guide and tour manager interchangeably. As far as Im concerned, apart from timeframe, the only difference between being a tour manager and being a tour guide is that its easier to impress someone with a Tour Manager title.