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What do you usually take along with you while guiding? Tour guides need to get prepared when meeting your travel clients. One preparation is your take-along materials. There can be two categories of things to bring – the necessity and the value-adding.
The necessity refers to the basic things that help you complete a tour. Pick-up sign with client’s name, sightseeing tour itinerary for the day, guide license, water supply, mobile phone for communication, rain coats for the weather, etc. If you are showing a big group, microphone is needed to make sure all travelers can hear you. A flag may also be necessary to lead the group forward.
Depending on the different natures of guiding, tour guides can create your own list of necessary take-along. Mountain guides may need supporting equipments. Adventure trip requires medicine preparation. Take a torch if you will process in the dark.
The value-adding things assist tour guides to practice his work more vividly and successfully.
Some materials help to explain what you see. For example, a map of the area so that you can offer a geographic idea of the tour coverage. Pictures for vivid explanation of certain history or cultural backgrounds. As we are entering an information era, electronic products now allow tour guides bring more information than they can carry.
Carry something with your company logo. It can be your bag, hat, T-shirt… The sign helps your clients to recognize you during the tour. Moreover, it reminds your clients of your company in a subtle way. By doing this, you are also a walking advertisement while guiding. Small complimentary gift of the visited spots is also a good choice.
What other things do you carry when you guide the tour? Share with us.
Monday 31 January 2011
Monday 24 January 2011
OurExplorer website take on a new look
Check out the new OurExplorer site design today! The improved design of the OurExplorer.com website has made tour guide profile page more attractive with a new feature allowing guides to upload more than one photo.
Better search page of Find a Tour Guide and Private Sightseeing Tours. Customers now can sort their search results by tourist guide language, licensed, top rated and bookings
Clearer tour guide listing page for clients to view 10 tour guides on one page. You can see critical information like tour guide license, personal skills and most recent client review.
Check out more at http://www.ourexplorer.com.
Better search page of Find a Tour Guide and Private Sightseeing Tours. Customers now can sort their search results by tourist guide language, licensed, top rated and bookings
Clearer tour guide listing page for clients to view 10 tour guides on one page. You can see critical information like tour guide license, personal skills and most recent client review.
Check out more at http://www.ourexplorer.com.
Monday 17 January 2011
How to promote sightseeing tours via twitter?
Twitter is a new and quick-developing method for online marketing. Think first, is this a platform to show your personal characters or to present your sightseeing tours. If it is a personal stage for you, then you can tweet anything you like. But if you want to make it a marketing channel, how can tour guide use this word-of-mouth to get more clients?
Create a profile with clear business info. Choose a user name relevant to your business. Your user name will appear in the URL and be mentioned through communication with other users. It can be your company name e.g. http://twitter.com/ViatorTravel. Show your key service is also a good choice, e.g. http://twitter.com/tour_guide for OurExplorer. Take some time to complete your biography info including profile photo, location, web and bio. This is one-time effort and tells visitors who you are. If you want to do more, you can edit the background picture of your twitter page, matching your website or business.
Connect twitter with other platforms to maximize your tweets. Twitter has applications for user to choose. On the other hands, many websites provide option to include your tweets directly. For example, you can add twitter to your network profiles for more automatic viral. You may combine twitter with your blog, to maximize the effects of single post.
What can you tweet to promote sightseeing tours? New available sightseeing tours, seasonal promotion for certain tours, client testimonials on your tours, updates in the popular sightseeing tours… Use your creativity to viral in 140 characters.
Twitter is also a social network platform. You can connect with other people by following or being followed. Your sightseeing tours would enjoy word-of-mouth all over the world with successful viral marketing.
Update regularly to keep it live. Twitter is a mini-blog, as some people call it. Like blog posts, regular updates are recommended.
OurExplorer twitter - http://twitter.com/tour_guide. Welcome to share your twitter experience here or @tour_guide.
Create a profile with clear business info. Choose a user name relevant to your business. Your user name will appear in the URL and be mentioned through communication with other users. It can be your company name e.g. http://twitter.com/ViatorTravel. Show your key service is also a good choice, e.g. http://twitter.com/tour_guide for OurExplorer. Take some time to complete your biography info including profile photo, location, web and bio. This is one-time effort and tells visitors who you are. If you want to do more, you can edit the background picture of your twitter page, matching your website or business.
Connect twitter with other platforms to maximize your tweets. Twitter has applications for user to choose. On the other hands, many websites provide option to include your tweets directly. For example, you can add twitter to your network profiles for more automatic viral. You may combine twitter with your blog, to maximize the effects of single post.
What can you tweet to promote sightseeing tours? New available sightseeing tours, seasonal promotion for certain tours, client testimonials on your tours, updates in the popular sightseeing tours… Use your creativity to viral in 140 characters.
Twitter is also a social network platform. You can connect with other people by following or being followed. Your sightseeing tours would enjoy word-of-mouth all over the world with successful viral marketing.
Update regularly to keep it live. Twitter is a mini-blog, as some people call it. Like blog posts, regular updates are recommended.
OurExplorer twitter - http://twitter.com/tour_guide. Welcome to share your twitter experience here or @tour_guide.
Sunday 9 January 2011
How to promote tour guide services via blog?
Blogging is popular nowadays on the internet. It can be an efficient marketing method to promote tour guide services. Have you considered using a blog to drive more clients? If you had a blog already, is it active enough to get more readers and clients? Here are some tips on tour guide blogging.
How to start a blog? You can start a blog within minutes through third-party platforms. There are existing platforms like blogger, wordpress, etc. You just need to create a profile and use their tools and applications. If you have an existing website on tour guide services, you can incorporate third-party blog into your own website. For more sophisticated website owners, you can ask your IT to create a blog page specifically to your requests.
What to write in the blog posts? For a tour guide, you need to first clarify the purpose of blogging. Do you want to show your passion for the destination you guide, or you want to drive more clients and expand your business? You can share your knowledge and recommendation in the guided area. Or introduce the scenic spots together with your sightseeing tours. You also need to think about your readers. Be reader-oriented and write what may interest them.
How frequent do you need to update your blog? There is no fixed number how frequent a blog guide shall be updated. It is better you write regular blog posts. Your blog then looks fresh to both readers and search engines. Do not write everything at the beginning and run out of topics after months. Once a week or twice a week can be a good frequency. Sure you can update every day when you have plenty of things to share.
Have you had a nice blog for your tour guiding service or have you come across any good blogs by tour guides? Welcome to share here.
How to start a blog? You can start a blog within minutes through third-party platforms. There are existing platforms like blogger, wordpress, etc. You just need to create a profile and use their tools and applications. If you have an existing website on tour guide services, you can incorporate third-party blog into your own website. For more sophisticated website owners, you can ask your IT to create a blog page specifically to your requests.
What to write in the blog posts? For a tour guide, you need to first clarify the purpose of blogging. Do you want to show your passion for the destination you guide, or you want to drive more clients and expand your business? You can share your knowledge and recommendation in the guided area. Or introduce the scenic spots together with your sightseeing tours. You also need to think about your readers. Be reader-oriented and write what may interest them.
How frequent do you need to update your blog? There is no fixed number how frequent a blog guide shall be updated. It is better you write regular blog posts. Your blog then looks fresh to both readers and search engines. Do not write everything at the beginning and run out of topics after months. Once a week or twice a week can be a good frequency. Sure you can update every day when you have plenty of things to share.
Have you had a nice blog for your tour guiding service or have you come across any good blogs by tour guides? Welcome to share here.
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