Living There
It would be fair to say that the tour guide profession has been well and truly transformed over recent years – mainly because of the rapid development of group tours. More and more companies have entered the scene with the premise of giving travelers the chance to visit umpteen attractions around a country in a matter of days. To add even more culture to the trips, local guides are always appointed.
However, there is certainly a difference between these guides. Some companies might provide the best hotels, but their overall service is anything but the best thanks to the guide. Therefore, if you
are about to embark on one of these trips – we’ve put together a few pointers on what spells out a good guide.
Firstly, as is the case in any industry, knowledge is power. The main reason why companies such as Globus Tours provide a local representative is because they know the area like the back of their hand. There’s no searching through the travel guide, or asking someone else for directions – these guides know the cities as they have lived there for a lifetime. Therefore, if you happen to be given anyone who doesn’t hold maximum familiarity within an area, you are immediately selling yourself short. It just doesn’t happen in the competitive nature of the escorted tour industry.
Next, we’re onto the way in which the good guides deal with those unplanned moments. Unfortunately, as any seasoned group tourist will tell you, things happen to go off script very frequently. Through no fault of anyone’s, whether it is due to a natural disaster, the weather or even a strike, plans go out of the window. An accomplished guide will be able to tailor their schedule right off the bat – finding alternative activities in an instant. A poor one on the other hand will be ooing’ and arring’ and by the time they have made a decision, it’s the close of play and onto the next day.
The final factor is something that a guide can’t really control, but few would disagree that it just contributes to their overall ‘presentation’ of a country. A poor accent, lack of enthusiasm or just the inability to tell a story can mean that even the most knowledgeable guide of the country can’t be a success. A decent guide needs charisma; they need to strike a chord with their tourists. If they’re unable to do that, even a trip to the national monument isn’t going to catch anyone’s attention – everyone will be napping.
Fortunately, the tour guide profession is almightily competitive. It means that there just isn’t room for slackers anymore and anyone who doesn’t tick all of the boxes will not survive long. However, the above highlights at least a minimum set of standards for anyone who has not yet been on a group tour and wants to know just what to expect from one of the renowned local guides.
