How to become a guide? Responsibilities, recommendations and feedback

The question of how to become a guide is not so complicated. You can learn this profession quickly enough, subject to the ability to work with people and adapt to changing requirements in the field of tourism. It is also important to be prepared to constantly develop and learn.

Differences between the guide and the guide

Many people confuse the concepts of "guide" and "guide". What is the difference?

A guide is a person who shows the sights of a country or city to an excursion group, which can consist of two or three people, or thirty or more. Often the guide accompanies the group on the bus during the trip, on the way tells some interesting facts from the history or culture of the country or city, gives useful tips, describes the route that the bus follows, and much more. If the tourist group consists mainly of children, then the guide may be responsible for ensuring their safety. However, as a rule, guides receive a premium in this case, and they never leave alone with children: there must be teachers, educators, counselors or parents.

The guide conducts excursions around the place - in art galleries, museums, art houses. He has a less active program, because groups come to the museum or gallery directly to his workplace, because the course of the tour is the same each time - along the route from room to room.

What does the guide do

Both the guide and the guide should be able to correctly convey information to the audience. A tourist group or visitors to a cultural institution apply for such services in order to get the most useful and accessible information in clear language.

The guide helps to navigate on the spot, if necessary, explains how to get to any particular art hall, talks about the exhibits presented, reports on the history and time of the creation of the most interesting of them.

The guide introduces tourists to the city or country. If the tour takes place abroad, he tells the tourist group about the national characteristics of the country, its culture, gives useful tips. Its main task is to show the group interesting sights and tourist routes, the main cultural institutions. The duties of the guide also include helping tourists with their questions about finding any local entertainment venues. In other words, if the tour is dedicated to the castles of Lviv, and the tourist asks where to drink beer after the tour, the guide should know the answer to this question.

If the excursion is on-site, the guide often begins to fulfill the duties of both a guide and a guide, and tourists often confuse these concepts, as mentioned above. Therefore, in the future we will call the word "guide" a representative of both that and that profession.

What qualities should a guide have

It often seems that a good guide should literally have a vocation for his profession, because there are so many necessary qualities and skills that few people get it quickly.

The main qualities and skills of a good guide are as follows:

• Stress resistance. The guide works, but the tourists relax, and therefore often come across people who relax too violently or so that others strain from their relaxation. The guide must be able to politely and culturally calm the raging tourist and extinguish the conflicts that arise during the tour. In addition, you need to be able to switch from your own everyday problems and worries to work.
• Thorough knowledge of the city, country or cultural institution. In addition to the main excursion program, it may be necessary to provide tourists with additional information, for example, if someone asks questions. The answer in the style of “I don’t know in which year this picture was painted” is an indicator of a low level of professionalism.
• Proficiency in several foreign languages.
• Excellent oratory skills.
• Good physical fitness to withstand the whole excursion. It is especially important for those who conduct tours in the cities.
• Interest with your work. It is very difficult to interest people with exhibits or sights of the city, if you talk about them with the intonation of "rather you would go out for a walk."

Of course, most tour guides want to engage in outreach groups, preferably those traveling abroad. This is a great opportunity to improve your skills, visit another country, and the salary level is much higher.

Since many people dream of becoming a tour guide abroad, the competition in this area is very great.

To begin with, applicants for work in another country need to gain experience while conducting tours of the cities in their homeland.

City Tours

Guides usually meet with their group at any particular point. Tourists can come by organized group on the bus, and can be pulled up one by one or by companies, it depends on the nature, time and place of the tour.

Next, the guide guides the group along the tourist route, passing along talking about the sights and interesting places.

They already talk about how to become a tour guide at the first classes at any faculty of the tourism business, since it is this area of ​​activity that most students are interested in.

As soon as the young guide has the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in practice, you need to give everything in full. The first experience will not always be the most successful, but you need to be able to take into account your mistakes and practice.

In city tours, it is important to be able to keep the entire group in sight, and to do this not only for control, but also for the convenience of every tourist: if someone feels superfluous on tours, he is unlikely to have a pleasant impression. Sign language and views come with experience.

Depending on the personal and professional qualities, as well as on the basis of experience and professionalism, the guide can start moving up the career ladder, including traveling abroad with groups for excursions for short or long periods.

And since theoretically practically every specialist who meets professional and qualification requirements can become a tour guide in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris or Prague, every little thing is taken into account when selecting candidates for a position.

Guide in museums and galleries

This position is much simpler, since there is no need to spend a lot of time in the conditions of the scorching sun or severe frosts, and the group is much easier to keep in sight. Only those who are very interested in art are interested in how to become a guide in a museum, who with great pleasure study its features and chronology. As a rule, for them, such work will be rather a pleasant pastime, especially if they love and know how to share their knowledge.

Young people rarely go to work as a guide in a museum only if it is not some modern, creative, or extravagant cultural institution. For example, you can often see a young girl-guide in the Museum of Modern Art than in the Tretyakov Gallery.

By the way, since becoming a guide in the Tretyakov Gallery is quite prestigious, experienced guides who are well aware of the history and culture of painting, claim to get work there.

Tours in Moscow

Moscow is the capital of Russia, so a huge number of people visit it daily. Therefore, for the city’s cultural sphere, it is very important to educate tourism workers on how to become a guide in Moscow in order to pleasantly impress guests.

It is the guide who makes the first impression of the guests about the capital, and there is a tourist - a foreigner, then also about the country as a whole. This is the main feature of excursions in the capitals of countries. Not only is the tourist route itself quite long, but also the public is diverse, among which there may be foreigners. Is it worth talking about the importance of knowledge of a foreign language in this case?

During a sightseeing tour, as in any other city, you need to have time to show as many main attractions as possible.

Features of excursions in St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg is a special city permeated through with the spirit of culture and poetics. As a rule, tourists come there to improve their knowledge of painting, sculpture and poetry, enjoy the architecture typical of the city, and visit legendary historical places.

Since many people want to become a guide in St. Petersburg precisely because of the high level of spirituality of local residents and nonresident visitors, candidates should be able to literally imbue the spirit of the city. Ideally, if the guide is a resident of St. Petersburg, then he will be able to introduce tourists to the character of the city literally from the inside.

Guide training

In fact, not every guide has a diploma in education in the field of tourism business. Some specialists attend courses that can last from several months to a year, quickly learn the profession, receive the appropriate document and can apply for work in this area. Such an education cannot be considered meaningless, since graduates of tourism specialties rarely specialize in excursions. Basically, universities teach management in tourism, hotel and restaurant business, which, by the way, can be an advantage, and not a mandatory requirement for a guide.

That is why the question of how to become a guide without a basic education in the field of tourism is absolutely normal and intelligent. Nevertheless, it is desirable to complete at least courses in the profession.

Prospects for a guide

Since becoming a tour guide in Moscow is not the ultimate dream of most Russian specialists, it is safe to say that the tourism industry is progressing and developing.

A good guide can grow professionally to the head of a travel agency department or a higher level manager. On his shoulders can lay the responsibility for drawing up tourist routes for other guides. This work is suitable for calm people who prefer a measured schedule in life.

And those who want to continue to travel are interested in how to become a guide abroad. Such an opportunity is also closely related to professional growth.

Tips for young guides

• Decide on the desired direction of work (excursions in museums, galleries, field trips, trips abroad, etc.).
• Compare your desires and opportunities, identify weaknesses.
• Continuously develop and learn, attend continuing education courses. Often such courses are provided by travel agencies in which the guides work.
• Explore the area in which you work: the history of art, artifacts, cities, attractions, key features, interesting facts, and more.

Reviews about the profession

According to most tour guides, this profession is much more complicated than it seems at first glance. But its advantages in the form of constant new experiences block and level all difficulties.

Those who dreamed of becoming a guide in St. Petersburg got this opportunity due to their great interest in the history of the city. Travel agency managers give preference to those employees who are enthusiastically ready to conduct excursions and tell tourists about the city with burning eyes.

Summary

We hope that in this article many found the answer to the question of how to become a guide. The main difficulty of this work is its rhythm. You need to be able to constantly keep yourself in good shape, be able to correctly and beautifully express your thoughts and masterfully hide your tiredness from tourists.