The document discusses the changing role of tour guides from various perspectives. It notes that tour guides fulfill many roles such as ambassadors, educators, and entertainers. Their role is to provide information to visitors in an interactive and engaging way. The tour guide industry faces many dynamics and challenges with the rise of new technologies, media, producers, themes, and ways of exploring destinations. However, tour guides can add value by providing authentic local experiences and acting as cultural mediators between visitors and destinations. The future direction of the industry remains unclear but focusing on storytelling, responsible tourism, and intercultural exchange can help tour guides differentiate themselves.
5. tourism is the industry that
brings (potential) visitors to
the sources of experiences
TOUR GUIDE
From: WTO (2007: 1)
5
6. the role of a tour guide
“The role of a tour guide is to accompany group or individual visitors when they
visit monuments, sites, musea, a city or a region and/or nature. He gives them
information on the cultural, social, historical, artistic and natural heritage in an
interactive, understandable, inspiring and entertaining way, in the language of a
the visitor” (SERV april 2002)
codes of conduct (soft law)
formal training
awards of excellence
professional associations quality
professional certification
licensing
(Black and Weiler, 2005)
52. • New target groups – mainly domestic or international niches
• New accents – complementary stories to official guiding
– More experience-based & demand-oriented
– Anecdotical or critical
– From selling to sharing
– From tourist to traveller
• New guiding techniques (improvisation, …)
• New information sources: autodidactism
• Entrepeneurship and innovative attitude
• Exogeneous
– Other sectors (than tourism): culture, hospitality, event bureaus, transport, locals, …
– Global players (e.g. Another Travel Guide, Like-a-Local, Arrivalguides, Onlibri, …)
• Motives
– Passion, love for the destination, …
– Discontent with ‘traditional’ forms of storytelling
– Desirability of ‘tourist emancipation’
– Income and even profit potential
– Relational and/or sustainable tourism
53. the tour guide industry is a rough sea
and the horizon is not in view
57. “give tourists a better experience
than they expect”
Intercultural Responsible Storytelling &
mediation tourism experience
• Reaching into the • Good practices • Emotions
community • Shared experiences • Behind-the-scenes
• Getting in touch • Engaging experiences • Multisensorial
• Give meaning • Innovation and • Participative, hands-
• Authenticity entrepreneurship on, interactive
• Relational tourism • Strategic coalitions • Learning and
discovering
