How To Become A Tourist Guide In India

You find solitude and endearment when you travel?

Always have the fall to wander and find the way to your destination, while you clearly cherish the journey, the beauty, and the history?

Have almost backpacked to every possible location in your country and outside, and never wish to lay back at one place?

Have a serious fall for guiding people towards the journey and can never stop talking about how this all holds you back?

I know these are too many questions to ask, but it is a simple psychological strategy to make you introspect.

If your answer to most of these questions is Yes, choosing a career in tourism is a great pick for you.

Our country is a rich heritage of flora and fauna, culture, and history. Whenever we talk about India, something new and interesting comes up. And this attracts a big number of national and international tourists in the country.

Travel and tourism sector is one of the largest and the most thriving ones, contributing a large percentage to the Indian economy. With globalization and the unwrapping of our economy to the world, travel and tourism in India is getting a great push in the world market. Technology, coupled with the growth of tourism globally, has had a large impact on transforming jobs.

A tourist guide is a person who shows the places of interest to the tourists. S/he provides assistance with cultural, historical, and contemporary heritage interpretation on organized tours. S/he guides individual clients at educational establishments, religious and historical sites, museums, and venues of other remarkable interests.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller

The Advantages:

Nothing is better than getting to do what you love, especially when you belong to a country of rich heritage in every aspect.
You get to travel to every place that you have ever wanted to travel to and get paid for it, isn’t it amazing?
Sharing your country’s heredity will always make you proud.
You will learn something every day and will definitely grow as a person.

The Downsides:

With great power and fun comes great responsibility, so is with a career as a tourist guide or any other.
You as a tourist guide are responsible for what and how you present a particular place or sight to the tourist(s).
Taking proper instructions and keeping everything in place turns out to be a task a lot of the times.
You should know/learn how to be patient and act according to the situation.

Know About Your Country

As a tourist guide, you should always have a fair knowledge of your country. As tourists are always excited and eager to learn every detail about their travel destination. They ask every sort of questions. And they expect you to know all the answers. Tourists always like the additional knowledge.

Here is some important information on How to Become A Tourist Guide in India.

Age Limit: No age limit as such.

Educational qualification: You should have done graduation in any discipline, preferably art, archaeology, history, and culture. A course in travel and tourism will always provide an edge.

Skills Required: An outgoing and friendly personality; ability to deal with different people, a thorough knowledge about traveling and various tourist destinations, verbal fluency, and aptitude for foreign languages like –

Spanish
French
Portuguese
Russian
French

Also, business tactics and social etiquette will help you go a long way in this career.

The ability and patience to help and provide hospitality is a must. One should also have an up-to-date knowledge of available facilities and services in the field.

Training: The Best Way to Learn More About The Profession

Once you know how to become a tourist guide in India, have undergone the relevant course/s, training is the next essential step. Especially in such kind of jobs, training cannot be avoided. Training will help you get accustomed to the difficulties that will face in your career. You will also learn about the various possibilities for growth. Training programmes are the best to learn the do’s and don’ts of any career.

Career Scope & Job Prospects

The field is growing and bringing in the extensive excellent opportunities in the field of tour operations, tour-packages, sight-seeing, etc.

Here are the key job opportunities available:

In travel services –

Tour Operators: Planning a holiday with family, friends or your spouse is not a tension now because of the tour operators. They take the stress to research and plan your vacations.

Travel Agents – Travel agents have access to the best hotel allowances and have tied-up with the top resorts, airlines, and transport companies. Their main purpose is to bestow customers with the best value for their money. With their in-depth knowledge of the industry, they ensure that not even one moment of people’s precious holiday time is squandered.

Hoteliers – “Hotel Manager” or “Hotelier” is the hotel’s General Manager, who serves as a hotel’s head executive. His duties and responsibilities vary depending on the hotel, purpose, and expectations from ownership. The hotel’s General Manager is to take care, guide, and lead the sub-department managers that are responsible for different departments and key functions of the hotel.

Restaurateurs – Traditionally, a restaurateur is a person who owns and runs a restaurant professionally.

There are these other opportunities if you are looking for a career in travel and tourism –

Transport Service Providers
Adventure and Leisure Tourism Providers
Heritage Sites and their Conservation
Manufacture and Sale of Handicraft Items
Marketing of Souvenirs

This excludes the specialized services, and there are the support services: administration in the offices, secretarial and clerical jobs. The Government of India has acknowledged the tourism sector as an industry to boost the career prospects.

Some of The Best Travel And Tourism Institutes In India

Some of The Top Companies In The Industry

With the rapid expansion of travel and tourism industry, becoming a tour guide is among the most lucrative careers.

A passion for traveling, a zeal to learn about new places, ability to help and deal with different sort of people, curiosity about varied languages and cultures, and seriousness towards your work is all you need to become a successful tour guide.

Hope this information helped. All the Best! 🙂