Tour Guiding Introduction Eligibility Job Prospects Remuneration Useful Contacts Watch Video

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. 

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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.

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.