5 Big Reasons to Use a Tour Guide

Tour guide

Tour guide: Dear Travellers, In this blog we will try to unravel issues from a travellers point of view, why to use tour guide. We will also try to resolve your intrinsic nomadic urge for the same. We have put together some profound reasons to use the local guide below. Before starting the blog let’s understand a few points mentioned below. Let’s begin.

WHAT IS A TOUR GUIDE?

A tour guide is a person who guides tourists/visitors in their language and interprets the cultural/natural heritage of the area in which he or she possesses knowledge. Most of the guides work freelance and are generally trained, qualified and licenced or recognised by the appropriate administrative authority of their country. It is believed that the tour guide’s profession is administered from the times of King Alfonso XIII.

Guides are known by different names in different countries i.e tour or tourist guides/local guides, tour leaders, heritage or cultural interpreters. Guides are cultural ambassadors of a country since they will be the first to welcome tourists and last to bid farewell to them when they leave the country. Guides are an essential part of travel and tourism, as they comprehend every issue from the perspective of a tourist.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TOUR GUIDE?

Tour guide

Not easy for anyone can be a good tour guide. It is a skill that comes with a huge responsibility to make their guests experience memorable, entertaining, informative, and seamless. Since a guide will have to deal with different people of different interests, in this case, their knowledge and passion about their destinations is the real key to their success.

A good guide should be a great listener who will understand to work to get the best of the guests time and is able to explain facts, history, landmarks, figures, local customs and additional tour related questions that may come up during the trip. Knowledgeable guides can help make your trip insightful and memorable. A good guide should also be a crisis manager although we understand some things are beyond the control of a guide but, a good guide is the one who looks to for a positive response and a resolve of any problem.

A good tour guide can never be boring but charismatic who reads his audience and understands interest levels quickly. Most importantly simply being a great guide is not good enough but improving his/her skills really set a great guide apart from others. 

1. A GOOD GUIDE CAN ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE?

Not easy for anyone can be a good tour guide. It is a skill that comes with a huge responsibility to make their guests experience memorable, entertaining, informative, and seamless. Since a guide will have to deal with different people of different interests, in this case, their knowledge and passion about their destinations is the real key to their success.

A good guide should be a great listener who will understand to work to get the best of the guests time and is able to explain facts, history, landmarks, figures, local customs and additional tour related questions that may come up during the trip. Knowledgeable guides can help make your trip insightful and memorable. A good guide should also be a crisis manager although we understand some things are beyond the control of a guide but, a good guide is the one who looks to for a positive response and a resolve of any problem.

A good guide can never be boring but charismatic who reads his audience and understands interest levels quickly. Most importantly simply being a great guide is not good enough but improving his/her skills really set a great guide apart from others. 

2. USE A TOUR GUIDE FOR ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY AND HASSLE-FREE HOLIDAYS

Tour guide

There can be many reasons to take holidays and one of the most important ones is to release the stress. It is believed If someone is feeling stressed out, there is no better way or medicine than a good vacation. But Many things can hold you back from having a wonderful trip. There will always be many questions in your mind about the destination you have selected. For example, figuring out the small details of the destination selected, Like where to go and how to go and get around, etiquette, dos and don’ts of a destination. 

We trust that your holidays are incomplete without a Tour guide. Most Travel agencies are working to make your holidays less stressful. Guides are no less than a good travel agent in fact they are better since will be with you during your entire trip. Using a guide can save lots of hassles like obtaining tickets, knowing the operating hours and making reservations about a palace. For example, A good guide will suggest and show you an attraction in the morning before the heavy crowds. 

We all know that Travel and tourism have their impacts on the environment, which tour guides understand. When you use a guide you have a better opportunity to minimise your footprints. All national parks, conservation areas or nature reserves have their regulations and dos and don’ts. Good guides take a step further to conserve nature and heritage.

3. USE A TOUR GUIDE FOR TIME, QUALITY AND COST-EFFECTIVENESS

Tour guide

Think and answer yourself. You want to take your family on vacations and want that holidays should be worth it but you just can’t spend all your savings on a few days of pleasure. Big travel companies have big expenditures so they have to have a big margin to meet the cost of the operations. We are not saying that travel agents are not useful, they are useful if you’re doing very costly or complex trips. But for simply trips, timely and careful execution with a good tour guide can serve your purpose and even save you lots of money with fewer headaches. 

Continuing with the headings above, Tour guides offer peace of mind As they will suggest and help you plan the great itineraries suggest routes, timings or tell you which way is more cost-efficient to travel around. Less time spent worrying and creating itineraries means a lot of time saved. Well, structured itineraries are time-efficient and allow you to visit more places.

If you have less trouble these you will have more time to enjoy your trip. Most importantly a tour guide will be with you on the entire tour and can give you a solution and answer to any problem that arises instantly plus they will always be good service-oriented for the feedback of you for the future recommendation.

4. A TOUR GUIDE CAN BE A TRAVEL COMPANION AND A NEW FRIEND FOR A DAY OR FOR LIFE

Tour guide

Tour guides have unparalleled knowledge and are good storytellers and that are stories that can easily connect you with a person or a place. We believe there are some stories that once heard one never forget for life. The same rule applies to persons. A tour guide can be a true travel companion, a friend for the day and sometimes for life.

It gives you a person who understands your wishes and interests, who asks the right questions and, importantly, knows to package this into a genuine story and experience. Once you have hired a tourist guide in any country, you will always have your personal connection in that country.

Which you can always use to get information from your guide and refer your friends and family for the visit of the destination. For more personal experience and fun, it is much more impressive to get engage in conversation with a tour guide than just to google everything. 

So rightly said by Sir Tim Cahill , “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles”.

5. FOR GUIDES HAVE AN EYE FOR THE CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

Tour guide

Getting a perfect pic/shot for social media profiles has become such a necessity of the age and is very important to many travellers of the world. From a selfie with a famous statue/attraction to a perfect shot with a grand building or a hidden gem of a city.

A tour guide will be the person to find the best angle and the moment for the perfect shot and Not only that but When you visit a destination you always want to commemorate your visit and for sweet memories of the place you want to take some mementoes home, tour guides know whats the local speciality and will know the best and cheapest places to buy the perfect souvenir for your near and dears ones. 

Characteristics Of A Good Tour Guide

Tour guide

Here is a list of Some qualities a good tour guide must posses

  1. Knowledge of the Area in which He/She operate tours. 
  2. Good skills in Communication, learning and teaching. 
  3. Strong Empathy with Understanding
  4. Amazing Ability to Improvise and Adapt
  5. Quality focussed and service-oriented 
  6. Engaging Storyteller and Narrator 
  7. Flexibility Personality with good Understanding
  8. Timeliness and Punctuality

Tour guide