Tour Guiding : Introduction
The recent boom in travel and tourism industry has opened up many lucrative
job opportunities in this field and one among them is the career as a
travel / tour / tourist guide.
Travel / Tour guides are an essential part of the tourism industry and
play a vital role in satisfying the tourists visiting a region. Tour guides
serve as a link between the visitor and an area and its people. They accompany
travelers who travel individually or in groups, on sightseeing, educational
or other tours and give detailed information on the various monuments
and artifacts and about the area's traditions and heritage.
Travel guiding is a lucrative and apt career for those who are fond of
people, places and things and have a passion for history and culture.
One can turn this passion into a fruitful career by becoming a travel/
tour guide. To outshine as a tour guide, excellent interpersonal and communication
skills and a broad knowledge of the local history is very much desired.
They must also have exhaustive knowledge of a place with respect to its
culture, heritage, art, architecture, people, lifestyles etc. The
highly remunerative and challenging profession of a tourist guide is endowed
with immense potential.
The major task of a tourist guide is to make each and every trip worthwhile,
pleasant and memorable for the visitors. An efficient tourist guide can
make any place look attractive, beautiful and captivating to the tourists
by upholding the cultural traditions and heritage of the place along with
social customs and even local superstitions and legends. A tourist guide
must make sure that the visitors itineraries are met and that visitors
are being informed in an entertaining and responsible manner about the
location they are touring. They must also ensure the safety of the visitors,
help them overcome cultural shocks while getting used to places and its
people.
Tourist guides in India are officially approved as Regional, State and
Local Guides. At the local level, the municipal body licenses guides for
a particular site/ city. State tourism Departments or their Tourism Development
Boards grants license to State Level Guides. These guides can operate
within the precincts of a given state. Regional level tourist guides are
licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and gets a two
year renewable license endorsed for life by the Archeological Survey of
India. These guides can operate on inter-state circuits but are restricted
to their regions. To get a license to operate in a particular region,
the guides must get training and have to pass an examination.
Video on Tour Guiding
One can explore the right career opportunities available in the travel
and tour sector by taking a good tour guide training course. In addition,
one can learn a couple of additional languages, travel extensively, enrich
one's reading, keep meeting people and enjoy working with them. With the
right aptitude and training, one can definitely become an excellent tour
guide.
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