Working
as a Tour Guide or Escort: An Overview
An escorted tour is
one for which the passengers have paid extra money for the
convenience of having somebody along who knows a specific
geographical area and who is familiar with the many details of group
travel. Handling the logistics of a weeklong group tour involves quite
a bit of work, but the benefits can be great. Guides meet people from all over the world, serve as cultural
ambassadors to their customers and to local residents, and often act
as unofficial spokespersons for the area in which they work. In addition, tour guides act as educators and all-around
experts in the history, geography, and culture of the areas they
visit.
As you might
imagine, escorting tours is not all travel and glamour. Being an escort means leading a group of about forty people
from site to site, caring for their every need, answering their
questions, and dealing with every emergency. An
escort working for a tour company actually travels as a member of
the group. According to
most tour escorts, you really have to get along well with the
passengers, because you spend most of your time with them:
「Virtually
all of your time is spent with people, your customers. As their
guide, you ride on the planes and busses with them, you eat with
them, and tour with them all day long.」
Of course your
duties as escort don』t stop here. In
addition to being a travel companion, the escort must be responsible
for all aspects of tour coordination, including checking the group
into and out of hotels, coordinating sightseeing and transportation,
and providing informational narrative about the many sights visited.
The escort is usually described as being part entertainer,
part troubleshooter, and always a representative of the company. Being
in charge of the tour also means you have to deal with myriad
emergencies and surprises that occur all too often:
「Aside
from the usual challenging passengers, you also run into things like
hurricanes and floods which force you to rearrange an entire tour
instantly. Sometimes hotels lose dinner reservations, passengers get
sick, and customers fail to show up for the bus. You really have to
be able to think on your feet.」
Although types of
tours vary considerably, the typical tour guide or escort joins his
group at the departure point, usually the airport near the tour
company』s home city. The
group then flies to their destination and boards a bus (usually
called the coach), and takes a three- to ten-day tour of the
destination area. If
the area is unique, such as Washington, DC, or certain national
parks, a local tour guide, called a step-on guide, will provide the
narration for the area. Some
companies, however, will arrange tours so that the same guide
handles the same tour all season. This
eliminates the need for a step-on guide, since the tour guide will
have time to research the area thoroughly and the experience to
competently narrate it. Most
guides report that giving lectures, while difficult, can be one of
the more entertaining duties:
「At
first, speaking in front of large groups was kind of nerve-wracking,
but once I got into a routine, it was pretty easy and I learned to
improvise. You』re generally not expected to give very technical
talks, but most guides at our company would do some independent
research and come up with new facts of their own. Most tour guides
seem to really take pride in their destinations—it』s almost like
they』re talking about their home towns sometimes.」
The most common jobs
involve travel by bus with passengers who usually range in age from
50 and up. Tour sizes
will vary but a bus tour usually aims to fill its coaches with
thirty to fifty people. If
a tour is not traveling by bus, it may very well travel by train,
cruise ship, and plane. Imagine being paid to travel with people aboard a luxury
cruise ship, dining on the finest food, and enjoying all the great
amenities of cruising! Your
duty? To make sure that
your tour group is being taken care of and to handle any problems
that might arise.
There are a couple
of types of tour companies. The
first is called a "land tour" company. These companies operate tour busses, trains and trolleys that
may travel worldwide or they could be limited to a single area. Trips
tend to range from a few hours to about a week, though some
companies offer month-long tours. Most seasonal workers are tour
leaders, and are responsible for the day-to-day administration of a
trip.
On the other hand,
there are also great opportunities for seasonal jobs with
"adventure" tour companies. These
companies offer rafting, climbing, hiking and any other type of
outdoor activity you could imagine. Most
trips tend to be for only a day or two. Eco-tours
are an emerging trend.
There's a tremendous
variety of jobs with tour companies - from rafting and hiking guides
to administrative and support staffs. Depending
on the company, you could live and work in one location for the
entire season or you may be "on the road (or trail)" for
days, even weeks, per trip. Whatever
job and company you choose, tour company employment is sure to offer
a great destination for your seasonal work experience.
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