Tour Guides - Perpare in advance for your clients

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Are you sure that everything has been prepared before you meet your clients and start guiding?

As a tour guide, you may have visited your site for thousands of times, and know all the details of your guiding spot. However for a visitor, this is somewhere they had never been or scarcely know anything about. They expect the tour to be fantastic and memorable. So as a professional tour guide, you shall check everything before any tour for your clients.


Itinerary Preparation

Be familiar with the timetable and schedule. Tour guide is critical for both group travelers and individual clients. Make sure every detail is confirmed, what time, where to go and what to do. Confirm the site opening and closure, as they may change with summer/winter time, peak/low seasons, or holidays. Check if the activity is available, for they may cancel due to weather conditions.



Material Preparation

Travel is a way of consumption. The payments can be done by the tour guide or travelers according to your agreement. If a tour guide is required to pay for meals, accommodation, transportation, entertainment etc., do bring enough cash/money. Prepare for the vehicle if applicable. Confirm the vehicle condition and driver contacts. Also do not forget your guiding tools like tour guide certificate, microphone, and pick-up signs.



Knowledge Preparation

Your knowledge of the guided area, on-the-way sceneries, anecdotes… is basic. Tour guides, of course, are not encyclopedia. But the more you know, the better experience you clients would receive. Tour guide belongs the kind of miscellaneous career, requiring ongoing study and self-fulfillment. For example, the Olympic tour in Beijing after 2008, the coming 2010 EXPO visit in Shanghai. No matter you are a fresh guide, or a guide with 10-year-experience, you have to catch on with the new developments.



Psychological Preparation

Are you confident that you could satisfy your clients? They may have higher education, perhaps expert in certain industry, or with religion background … Do you have the confidence that clients of various types would be happy with your service? Well, do not panic. As mentioned before, tour guides are not encyclopedia. You don’t have to be more knowledge in all areas. Respect their knowledge or belief, and meanwhile, do your best to share the place you live and work. One way to help with your psychological preparation is to know about your clients before hand - where they come from, what age they are, if any special needs on religion or foods, etc.



Get ready with the above, and I’m sure you will start guiding with full confidence.

Tip for Tour Guides - Do not lecture

Travelers are not students. All tour guides understand it. However, many guides tend to lecturing rather than guiding with their clients. You may be very knowledgeable of the place or scenic spot, so you work hard to speak out on every bit of information.
Wait a minute, can your clients receive all this information, or just half of it? Pay attention to the client’s reply, either emotional or verbal. Do not lecture to them.
Guide books, promotional booklets, or guiding machines can do the lecture much better, standard and accurate. The value of a personal tour guide is to lead align with the scenery and emotions. For instance, on the bund of Shanghai, you are introducing the “International Architecture” with the city’s colonial past. Once facing the Pudong New Area, you are changing to the modernity and prosperous future of a bustling metropolis. Same location but different angles, the travelers will have very different information and a unique experience. Moreover, excellent tour guides communicate with their clients actively. They reply to questions that clients ask, expand knowledge when clients show interest, and appreciate when clients express exclamation.

How can your guiding remain in the tradition version of one-one communication?

Tour Guide best practice - Pricing your tour

This week OurExplorer came across some very interesting experiences from some of the tour guide bookings on OurExplorer. Some tour guides like Pablo in Argentina (pictured) have a policy of including all fares, transport, food, drinks, entry fees etc in his day price. I think this works best for the tour guide and the client as it prevents any surprises. A happy client = a happy tour guide.

However some tour guides will try and request more additional funds from a client post the booking. Is this fair?

OurExplorer - WFTGA tourist guide convention 2009

OUREXPLORER AT THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TOURIST GUIDES 2009 CONVENTION

The Chief Exploring Officer (CEO) of OurExplorer was delighted to attend and present to the delegation in Bali 2009. Hundreds of professional tourist guides from all over the world attended.

Do you have any queries/comments on why licenced tourist guides are better for global tourism?

Checklist for a tourist guide - OurExplorer

OurExplorer would like to give full credit and recognition to the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA) for these excellent checklist points.

Checklist for Professional Tourist Guides

Checklist: All Tours

DO
1. Use top visual priority (TVPs)
2. Be flexible
a) Select appropriate commentary for group
b) Be prepared to change route
c) Be prepared to change the itinerary
d) Be able to provide alternative routes
3. Give a balanced commentary
Link, relate, qualify and develop according to timing
4. Stress the social history
5. Allow and handle questions
Always listen carefully, repeat the question and use it to gain further rapport.
Be honest: say if you do not know the answer; look it up and report
6. Give time for guests to talk
7. Limit detail to the important
8. Explain technical terms and jargon
9. Be confident. Conceal your nerves. Remember you know your subject well
10. Remember your assets: voice, personality, and knowledge… and smile!
11. Be imaginative
12. Use the visitors knowledge; find our if there are any specific interests and include them
13. Use common sense
14. Be diplomatic
15. Carry appropriate reference books e.g. for birds, trees, technical devices etc.
16. Present the site or experience in the best possible way

DO NOT
1. Forget to mark the tour in your diary immediately!!
2. Forget to count: group members, restaurant seats, entrance tickets etc.
3. Speak without having something to say
4. Express personal or negative opinions and/or comments
5. Present controversial topics: politics, religion, sex etc.
6. Assume existing knowledge
7. Assume customers to be ignorant
8. Presume to be an expert or get over-extended on a subject
9. Be negative e.g. “What a shame about the weather” or “This usually looks better” or “If only we could…”
10. Hurry your guests, comment on lack of time
11. Turn your back to the group or turn your head away whilst speaking (exception: moving coach!)
12. Start speaking before group is assembled and composed
13. Speak while walking
14. Overtire your guests with too much information or too many dates
15. Tell lies or make uninformed guesses
16. Offend your visitor
17. Argue – either with the customer or the driver, or indoor staff
18. Forget the name of your group, hotel, programme, voucher
19. Unfavourably compare guests or persons or programmes
20. Give medication to your clients

OurExplorer hope all you tourist guides benefited from these excellent points

OurExplorer Tour Guide - New website version goes live

Thanks again for all your great suggestions during 2008 on OurExplorer.
Each tour guide who contributed and gave feedback has helped every new tour guide who will join OurExplorer into the future.

The changes to OurExplorer are focused on 3 main things -

1. Make OurExplorer easier to use
2. Increase the amount of tour guide profiles clients review
3. Increase the amount of tour guide bookings

OurExplorer would love to hear your thoughts on the new 2009 site.
Love it or hate it?

Helping Hearing Impaired travelers - OurExplorer Tour Guides

OurExplorer was delighted this week to help a lady who is hearing impaired to travel through Asia. OurExplorer had our best tour guides ensure the trip was safe, educational and enjoyable.
100% Happiness Guaranteed!

As a tour guide, have you ever helped hearing or visually impaired travellers before?