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Travel Guides: Job Description

Plan, organize, and conduct long-distance travel, tours, and expeditions for individuals and groups.

What Do Travel Guides Perform?

Typical responsibilities of travel guides cover:

• Arrange for tour or expedition details such as accommodations, transportation, equipment, and the availability of medical personnel.
• Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites.
• Resolve any problems with itineraries, service, or accommodations.
• Attend to special needs of tour participants.
• Sell travel packages.
• Evaluate services received on the tour, and report findings to tour organizers.
• Give advice on sightseeing and shopping.
• Administer first aid to injured group participants.

What Travel Guides Need to Know

Successful travel guides draw on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

The abilities that matter most in this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Core Knowledge

Other Travel Guides Job Titles

Common job titles for this role include:

• Adventure Guide
• Alpine Guide
• Cruise Agent
• Cruise Consultant
• Cruise Coordinator
• Cruise Counselor
• Cruise Director
• Cruise Guide

How Many Travel Guides Are There?

The U.S. employs around 47,032 travel guides working in the United States today. Employment is projected to decline by -2.4% over the projection horizon.

Travel Guides Pay

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$47,903
Hourly median	$23.03
10th percentile	$28,414
25th percentile	$38,158
75th percentile	$57,647
90th percentile	$67,392

Wages vary widely based on experience, location, and industry.

Tools and Technology

• Web page creation and editing software: Facebook (hot technology)
• Data base user interface and query software: Microsoft Access (hot technology)
• Spreadsheet software: Microsoft Excel (hot technology)
• Office suite software: Microsoft Office software (hot technology)
• Electronic mail software: Microsoft Outlook (hot technology)
• Presentation software: Microsoft PowerPoint (hot technology)
• Word processing software: Microsoft Word (hot technology)
• Data base user interface and query software: Structured query language SQL (hot technology)
• Business intelligence and data analysis software: Tableau (hot technology)

What the Workplace Is Like

The on-the-job environment of travel guides tends to involve the following characteristics:

• Telephone Conversations
• Determine Tasks, Priorities and Goals
• Contact With Others
• Freedom to Make Decisions
• E-Mail

Education and Training

Most travel guides positions require a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. This career aligns with Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), reflecting the level of preparation typically expected.

Related Careers

Similar Occupations

• Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling (Supplemental)
• Lodging Managers (Primary-Long)
• Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners (Primary-Long)
• Park Naturalists (Supplemental)
• First-Line Supervisors of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services (Supplemental)
• Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers (Primary-Short)
• Amusement and Recreation Attendants (Supplemental)
• Baggage Porters and Bellhops (Supplemental)

References

This profile draws on the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 39-7012.00 (Travel Guides).