Profession guide: description, duties, advantages and disadvantages, where they teach to be a guide

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Tour guides are people who conduct excursions for tourists and the local population. Their well-paid work, filled with interesting moments, is devoid of monotony and monotony. The profession of a guide, the description of which will be presented to your attention in this article, can only be perfectly mastered by someone who has deep knowledge in the field of art, history and geography.

Work duties

The main labor duties of tour guides are as follows:

• Escort tourists and provide them with informative information about the history of any attractions.
• Search and in-depth study of historical information.
• Development of programs and selection of excursion routes.
• Coordination of tourists during emergencies.
• Filling out the required documentation.
• Doing the translator's job.
• Control over the actions of the participants of the tour until its completion.

Representatives of the tour guide profession also acquaint tourists with safety rules and knowfirst aid skills. They are obliged to answer any questions of the participants of the tour that do not affect personal topics.

Requirements for applicants

People who decide to connect their lives with this profession must have a whole range of business skills and abilities necessary for this.

• They must speak one or more foreign languages.
• Have a higher education in the humanities and relevant accreditation
• Quickly find a common language with people, differ in sociability
• It is good to know the topic of the chosen excursion.
• Have knowledge from the field of cultural studies, local history, ethnography and other sciences.

Special speech requirements

Representatives of the tour guide profession simply need to have the talent to correctly express themselves and clearly articulate their thoughts, because without mastering the art of speech it can be impossible for them to do their job at the proper level. The speech of people conducting various excursions must meet certain requirements, which are:

• Correct. The guide must know the rules of pronunciation, stress, style, use of words and their formation.
• Clarity. He needs to express his thoughts in an accessible and understandable way, not to resort to terms and words that complicate the information.
• Accuracy of information transmission. When conducting an excursion, one should not use words that have lost their semantic meaning.value.
• Expressiveness. A representative of the profession of a guide, in order to arouse increased interest among tourists, needs to resort to the help of epithets, allegories and metaphors.
• Purity (words that contradict the literary language cannot be used).

Tour guides should also pay attention to the brevity of their speech. The use of unnecessary words and phrases can significantly reduce the attention of the audience.

Necessary Personal Qualities

According to many theorists of excursion business, the guide must have the following personal qualities and characteristics.

• Excellent imagination and ability to think in images. A good professional is able to describe an object that is not nearby in such a way that tourists begin to imagine it in their imagination in reality.
• Tendentious. Tour guides, following the outlined plan, are able to skillfully bring their point of view to the audience.
• The ability to instantly look for the right words and find a way out of unusual situations.
• The desire to constantly improve their professional level.
• Good working capacity, physical and speech endurance.
• Artistry and excellent memory.
• A sense of humor and others.

Characteristic features of the microclimate of the tour often have a direct relationship with the temperament of the representatives of the profession guide-guide.

• Sanguine people are fast-talking,mood swings, instant reaction to the actions of tourists.
• Short-tempered and unbalanced choleric - in a hasty presentation of the material.
• Slow phlegmatic - monotonous facial expressions.
• Persistent melancholic - changes in emotional state.

However, the emotions inherent in a particular temperament, professionals in their field are always able to keep under control.

Profession guide: where to study

There are times when people who have graduated from a regular high school or special courses begin to work as guides on their own. However, they are usually observed in small settlements, where the qualifications of a representative of this profession do not attach much importance.

If you want to become a professional and get a decent reward for your work, then you should go through the following stages of training.

1. It is necessary to graduate from the relevant university (academy or institute of international tourism) and get a higher education in the humanities. In parallel, you should study foreign languages.
2. Having a diploma in hand, you can go to special advanced training courses operating at museums and universities.
3. Successfully passed the aptitude test and obtaining a license are the final stages of training a newly-made tour guide.

Profession benefits

The advantages of the profession of a guide, of which there are many, are as follows:

• Representativesof this profession can independently plan excursion routes and adjust excursion programs. Their work is completely devoid of routine and boredom.
• They are constantly meeting and interacting with new people.
• They have the opportunity to travel and work in the fresh air.
• Constantly improve knowledge of foreign languages.
• Tour guides work according to a free schedule and receive decent remuneration for their work.
• Representatives of this profession have a chance to open their own tourism business.

Cons of the profession

The profession of a guide also has its drawbacks, which are considered to be:

1. Long stay up.
2. The need to work in all weather conditions.
3. Snacks on the run (very often, tour guides have to spend their lunch time on organizational issues).
4. Responsibility for tourists.
5. Load on the vocal cords.
6. High competition.
7. Decrease in earnings in autumn and winter.

The prestige of the tour guide profession is directly related to the professional level of its representatives. However, its moral component does not automatically apply to every guide. Any representative of this profession wins and constantly confirms the prestige of the individual by his professional activity. The highest point in the career of a guide is considered to be the discoveryown tour desk or other tourism business.