5 qualities to look for when hiring the best tour guides

5 qualities to look for when hiring best tour guides

Creating an experience that is unique and authentic is the first step in attracting travelers to your tour and activity company. Then, you need to promote your products using the latest online marketing techniques to really get their attention. Finally, your travelers have arrived at your destination, and they are ready for your tours and activities. Do you have the right tour guides in place? Do you know the important skills of a tour guide? Hiring organised and engaging tour guides is necessary, because these guides play a significant role in the overall traveler experience with your brand. You might wonder, what are the best qualities of a good tour guide? Well, when hiring your tour guides, search for these valuable traits.

#1. Personable

People go on vacation to relax, enjoy themselves and meet other people. Your tour guides will be one of their primary connections, and they need to be friendly faces in a place that may feel new and different. Your tour guides should try to personalize the experience for each guest by asking their names, talking about where they come from and teaching them something new about your region of the world. They should also have a healthy sense of humor and be a charismatic person., ideally with an outgoing personality. These are good tour guide qualities to look out for.

#2. Multi-lingual

Tour guides have to work with people from all over the world on a daily basis. While it’s impossible to speak every traveler’s native language, it certainly will help your company if your tour guides speak a variety of languages. Multi-lingual tour guides can connect better with individual customers, and they also can provide a more welcoming experience while giving better depth of knowledge.

#3. Prompt

To put it simply, your tour guides have to show timeliness and punctuality. In fact, on time means that they should be on the premises at least half an hour before a tour begins. The last thing you want is a bunch of excited, happy vacationers sitting on a bus waiting for the guide to show up.

#4. Knowledgeable

Tour guides, in their own way, are the educators of your business. They have to be able to provide tourists with more than just basic facts about the experience they are enjoying and also the area they are operating in. They should have good communication skills, be able to engage in conversation and easily answer your customers’ questions.

#5. Cool-headed

Your guides also are the leader of your experience. If something unexpected occurs, they have to remain calm under pressure and put the safety of your guests first. If a customer is angry or frustrated, they must stay collected and treat that individual with respect as they express their concerns.

Professionalism and interpersonal skills should be a top priority when hiring a tour guide. Usually being an experienced kind of tour guide will help handling the pressure and being able to improvise when needed. Usually as an experienced tour guide, they should be able to handle the pressure and should also be able to improvise when needed.

The tour guides that you hire are quite literally the faces of your brand. They need to be ambassadors, not only for your company and its experiences, but also for the destination as a whole.

By taking the time to conduct a thorough hiring search for the relevant experiences and finding the right people for the job, you will find that your brand recognition grows and that your bookings will increase dramatically.

Rezdy can help you both attract and retain top talent. Our cloud-based online booking software allows everyone to stay informed and connected throughout the day.

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Image credit: Capchastagner Thierry