Читать книгу Start & Run a Tour Guiding Business - Barbara Braidwood Susan Boyce & Richard Cropp - Страница 3

Imagine a life filled with golden sandy beaches, sparkling ski resorts, priceless art treasures, and exquisite wonders of nature. Glamour! Romance! The adventure of exotic destinations and fascinating people. This week Paris, next week Rome or perhaps Hawaii. On days when you are not globe-trotting, you sport a great tan and are a sought-after guest at parties, where you dazzle everyone with tales of your travels.

Better yet, imagine someone paying you to live this lifestyle!

Sound exciting? You bet it is!

Travel schools, tour operators, and librarians all report that tour guiding is one of the most asked-about careers in the tourism industry. The life of a tour guide or tour director can be fun and rewarding, not to mention thrilling.

This book will give you a realistic idea about what it takes to be a tour director or guide. First we provide some industry background, describe what is involved in tour guiding, and tell you how to get a job as a tour guide or director. Then we give you tips on how to develop your own tours to your favorite destination and outline the planning you must do no matter where you are going. And finally we include a blueprint for the entrepreneur who wants to run a larger organization.

We do recommend you read the whole book. Readers who want a job with a tour company will get a good idea of what problems their employer faces behind the scenes. Knowing how things work and what the issues are can make all the difference to the kind of assignments you get. Entrepreneurs determined to set up a larger tour operation will benefit from learning the daily nitty-gritty of a tour organization.

By the way, if you decide the tour guiding business is perfect for you, you will find yourself being called a —

• tour director,

• tour guide,

• tour escort,

• tour host,

• tour leader, or

• tour manager.

Although the industry has specific definitions for each phrase, these terms are often used interchangeably. In this book we use the term “tour guide” for a person who leads a local day tour and “tour director” for someone who leads a tour that includes at least one night of accommodation.

One caveat: Everything changes in the travel business. We have tried to be accurate but we know that by the time this book goes to press, some item of information that has been the same for the last 20 years will have changed. Rather than relying on this book for every detail, use it to highlight those things you must research for yourself. The facts may change, but the principles will be the same.