Why is internet important to the business of a tourist guide? Because most people begin their travel planning online, looking for flights, accommodation, travel insurance, destination review, AND tourist guides. According to the Travel Trust Index Report 2008, 78% of the Americans use the web to make travel decisions and 68% trust the web for travel related advice.
How to let your clients find you on the internet? Here are some suggestions.
Get an email address. This may sound too obvious to miss. But the basic way to promote your business online is allowing your clients to contact by email. Email is instant, convenient and free, especially for overseas clients who are making their initial inquires. It saves them the trouble of time difference or phone costs. When a client emails you, he or she is probably interested in your guiding service. Congratulations! But be careful of the email delivery. Some mail servers are strong in anti-spam, sometime too strong for a tourist guide. Prospect clients, in most cases, are strangers. So make sure you donât miss any client request in your junk folder or bounced back by your email server. It is better to choose good global suppliers or big local service providers.
Display on a web page. Present your personal information and service on a web page. This is not your own website. It refers to other websites that allow people to create a personal profile page. Your clients may find your page via online search or by referral of friends. It helps to build up trust before further communication. Do pay attention to the relevancy of website where you display your service. You donât expect people look for tourist guides from a website of IT experts, right? Try searching for websites of tourist guides, local guides association, and tour suppliers. They are highly relevant to your business. Besides, information on these sites is more authentic to travelers. Another option is local classifieds if the majority of your clients are from a certain location. The more relevant, the more clients you would receive.
Create a personal blog. If you are a bit tech-savvy and can spend some time every week, create a blog on your guiding area. You donât need to write like a professional writer. The content can be as simple as a scenery photo, or a short spot introduction, or your personal recommendations. You are a tourist guide who knows the area well and would like to share it with visitors. Three suggestions if you decide to start a blog. First, give a brief self-introduction and leave your contacts. Remember why you created a blog? To let your clients find you. If you can speak several languages, speak it out in those languages as well. Second, keep it updated. Once a week can be good enough. If people see your post stopped 6 months ago, they would think the information out of date, even though your contacts find you well. Last but not least, keep the comments on and reply to them. The comment field is a great way to get feedback and interact with your blog readers, the possible future clients.
Network with prospect clients. Social networking grows popular at Web 2.0 era. There are now numerous social networking sites, with some specifically for travelers. The challenge lies in finding prospect clients of you from millions of travelers. The downside is time consuming. It is easy to find new people, but takes time to build up and maintain relationship for a real connection. It is up to you how much time you would like to spend on these networking sites.
Build a website. This action requires time and money investment. But you present more professionally with your own website. Your personal background, service provided, client testimonials, blog and others information can all be centralized in one place. Moreover, adding the website to your business card is a good way of promotion.
If you have more budget and higher ambition for your tour guiding business, you can go one step further with paid online marketing. Here are two ways for you to start with – paid search advertisements like Google Adwords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, Microsoft adCenter, and affiliation with relevant travel parties.
Internet is such a big resource that you shall not miss it, even if you only work as a tourist guide in a small town less visited by travelers. Visitors may need your accompany for more local insights. Do present yourself on the internet and let your clients find you for a memorable trip.
Who is there to say a tourist guide qualified or not? If you are choosing your own private guide before traveling, how do you judge?
Government license, most people would quickly reply. True. Guide licenses are issued in almost every country and region. License types vary from mountain guides to diving guides. A guide is qualified, since he has studied, passed government tests, and obtained a license.
Yet discussions on Philadelphia tourist guides sue have brought more thoughts on this test-to-qualify. The Philadelphia government recently required tourist guides to pass a history test and get license before introducing landmarks in the region. Three local guides sued, saying it violated free speech rights. Some argued passing a test doesnât mean one has thorough understanding of the region history. Some pointed out it benefiting none but some commercial bodies.
Not only people in the States question qualification tests. There are also Chinese graduates complaining on acquiring the license but no actual work. To some extent, the reason lies in the breakaway between government tests and market requirements. Take China as an example, the qualification tests for tourist guides include Basic Guiding Knowledge, Industry Law and Morality, Guiding Skills, and Oral Test. The items are necessary but very basic. It makes to be a guide, yet far from a well-qualified guide.
Stand in the shoes of a traveler, the client who considers hiring a tourist guide. What will he expect to achieve a fantastic and unforgettable trip? Of course the basic guiding knowledge is important. Some other elements are as well critical, especially in private small-group guiding as we discuss here.
The guide shall speak language of the clientâs, foreign and domestic the same. People are not hiring someone to recite information on guide books. If so, they simply buy a Lonely Planet book. They want the guide to introduce and answer questions. Tailor-made trip is desired. Some people pay attention to cultures, some are attracted by local foods, and some want nothing but shopping. The travelers all want a guide to maximize their local exploration. Another expectation is the guide to handle local transportation cleverly. It doesnât matter which transportation means, private cars, taxi, metro, tuk-tuk⦠But no client would be happy about repeated routes or traffic jam in rushing hours.
The market survivors are those who understand the needs of different travelers. The clientsâ viral, in return, outstands the guide from others. But where to find such viral? It couldnât be only the old-fashioned word of mouth. Thousands of travel websites are available for people to give destination reviews, VirtualTourist and TripAdvisor to name a few. Hotel and hostel reviews are easily accessible in various languages. But when it comes to tourist guides, there lacks a common platform to share client comments. Travelers are willing to talk about their experiences, either a fantastic trip with private tourist guide, or a terrible day by poor guiding. The clients need a place to give feedback. Other travelers want to hear fair comments. Tourist guides benefit from âcredit judgmentâ of market to get more business. OurExplorer is designed to be such a platform.
One further qualification is presentation of tourist guides themselves. This is often neglected and undervalued. You think a guide will only boast about himself to get more business? Not necessarily. Go through guides profiles on OurExplorer, 90% have provided fair self-introduction. Travelers are clever enough to distinguish advertisement from presentation. Therefore, the tourist guides shall indeed âpromoteâ themselves and their knowledge as a local expert.
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TITLE: Tourist Guides – Who judges their qualification? AUTHOR: Jean Liu, WORD COUNT: 584, URL: http://www.ourexplorer.com
There are literally hundreds of guides on budget travel to be found on the Internet and in bookstores. Some are useful, some are not. It really depends on what you want and where you are going. Many web sites offer email subscriptions and regular updates on where the best deals are. So how do you decide which ones are the most useful? A lot of the sites are confusing, so how do you find the ones that are going to give you the information you need?
Online bookstores have sections on travel guides. Try Amazon or specialty travel book stores like the Globe Corner Bookstores. They have an amazing array of guide books for the traveler on a budget. The most important thing to keep in mind about published guidebooks is that once the information is printed, it is probably out of date. Although most of them are updated annually, you cannot take what is written as set in stone. Internet guides are preferable in this area because their information is updated sometimes on a daily basis so all the deals on offer are available when you see them.
The best guides seem to be the ones that give you specific information on either your choice of destination or the type of holiday you will be taking (family vacation, backpacking, students, seniors, etc). There are the well known guide books/web sites like The Lonely Planet that will give you information on just about every destination you can think of. Or you can contact the embassy of the place you want to visit or go to the library to find out more about your choice of destination. Most web sites will also have links to travel deals that are from the site sponsors. Some of the deals look great but research them. Compare to other sites to get the best deal for you.
Some guides worth having a look at for the budget traveler are:
* ‘The World’s Cheapest Destinations’ by Tim Leffel
* ‘Europe on $70 a Day’ by Arthur Frommer
* Any guidebook from the Lonely Planet ‘Shoestring’ series
* Any guidebook from the ‘Cheap Eats and Sleeps’ series
If you are backpacking, getting a guide on hostels in the area you are traveling to is a good idea. There are many sites dedicated to finding hostels. You will be able to get prices and make bookings in advance.
Once you know where you are traveling you’ll be able to find a guide on just about anything. How to get there, where to sleep, where to eat, what to visit and how to travel around are all going to be available in a travel guide. And once you get to your destination go to the local tourist information stand and look at what other helpful guides are available.
This article is brought to you by: Stuart S. Travel – Your Online Travel Guru
Stuart S. Travel / Your All World Online Travel Guru:
Sherry Hardesty has been a professional flight attendant for over 15 years. Her experience is extensive and she provides professional travel consulting and booking services at http://www.stuartstravel.com
