Who is a tour guide

Who is a tourist guide, what are his responsibilities? Is it an easy job? What skills does it require? Along with the increasing wealth of society, its needs also increase. In many countries, it is no longer necessary to fight for survival, and this in turn gives rise to other desires.

Poles travel more and more, both within the country and abroad. Traveling is often indicated as the most important passion. The need to discover becomes stronger and stronger. After all, it is an opportunity to explore new places that impress with their power or delight with the created climate. At the same time, we can acquire information about culture (which, after all, varies not only from country to country, but also from region to region within the borders of a certain country).

There are also historical aspects that make it easier to understand the present. All this means that there is a high demand for the work of tourist guides. It is their task to translate the historical and cultural background. What does a tour guide do? What features should it have? What permissions are required?

Tourist guide – general information

First of all, a tourist guide deals with showing around and providing information about a certain area. As part of this article, we will consider Szczecin as an example that will allow us to understand everything better. Guide to Szczecin is a representative of one of the three basic classes. They depend on your permissions.

On this basis, we distinguish between city guides (as in the given example), field guides (whose scope of duties is limited to a certain area, e.g. the West Pomeranian Voivodeship) and mountain guides (e.g. guiding around the Sudetes). Achieving the right to practice this profession requires meeting several requirements. It is necessary to be an adult and with no criminal record. You also need to take appropriate courses (different depending on the above category) and pass the appropriate exam.

What should a travel guide be like?

Let’s take a closer look at what a tourist guide should be like. Of course, a guide in Szczecin should have a different range of knowledge than the one that talks about the Sudetes. The information you have is best absorbed if it is related to your passion. Also, the very transfer of information will be easier if it coincides with the interests of the guides. Knowledge and passion are therefore two fields that largely overlap. From a technical point of view, knowledge of foreign languages can be added to this.

However, the right approach to people is important. It also depends on where you work. In general, however, ease of making contacts and empathy are necessary, which helps to understand the other person. The latter feature makes it easier to adapt to customer needs. This, in turn, can adapt the content to the needs of recipients. The guide should also have an organizational sense. It is he who helps in proper time management or choosing routes that turn out to be optimal at a given moment.

Is the job of a tourist guide easy?

The answer to the above question may be tricky. A person whose goal is to visit Szczecin , and does not use the help of a guide, will probably not get the most out of this trip. Some elements will remain misunderstood. Having to explain all aspects is not easy. First, it requires knowledge. Secondly, it is necessary to take care of the appropriate context. Presenting certain content for groups is targeting people with different levels of knowledge and different depth of detail. Precisely this need to adapt is certainly not easy. Of course, the features that were mentioned earlier help in this.

The need to understand customer needs, but that’s all part of working in services. On the other hand, this job is so easy that it is usually connected with the interest of the guide. These issues should go hand in hand. In such a situation, the person who does this job does what he likes and at the same time finds himself in interesting places every day.

There are differences here as well. The mountain guide also needs to be able to navigate the terrain (and that goes without saying), but you also need to be able to manage your clients’ energy and that can be more difficult. So there is no clear answer to the question posed in the title of this paragraph, but deciding to work as a guide should result from passion, and the rest will become easier.

Summary

The guide is a person who increases the knowledge of tourists about the visited area (regardless of what it is). However, this is only one side of the coin, because entertainment is equally important. It is best if these two elements are connected to each other. Work requires appropriate permissions (if we want to do it within a company). It is also necessary to have certain features that will make us work better and our customers will be happier.