Читать книгу Start & Run a Tour Guiding Business - Barbara Braidwood Susan Boyce & Richard Cropp - Страница 16

As the travel industry grows, so does the number of schools offering travel training. Just take a look in the Yellow Pages under Travel Schools and you will see how popular they have become. This may appear to make it easier for would-be tour professionals to gain some formal education. The reality is that many of these schools, while offering an excellent curriculum for a generalist or someone focusing on one of the more structured areas of tourism, provide little in-depth training specifically aimed at tour guides and directors.

Before you invest in what are often high fees, assess how well the training will advance your personal goals. Exactly how much time will be devoted to tour guiding? How much will be spent on other subjects? If 95 percent of the time is spent learning how to be a travel agent, you will probably want to look elsewhere, unless becoming a tour guide is only a side interest for you. Do not be afraid to ask how many of the school’s graduates secure work in the industry. A history of grads finding themselves hard at work as restaurant staff or forklift drivers after completing the course should set off warning bells.

The first and currently the only school in North America devoted entirely to training professional tour directors and guides is the San Francisco-based International Tour Management Institute (ITMI). Modeled after training schools in Europe, ITMI was established in 1976 and now has training facilities in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston. Of the more than 250 tour directors and guides ITMI trains each year, approximately 80 percent find work in the industry. As one successful and now employed graduate put it, “The contacts you make there are something you can’t buy at any price.”

For further information contact:

International Tour Management Institute

Administrative Headquarters

#810 - 625 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94105

Tel: (415) 957-9489

www.itmitourtraining.com