I have had the chance to see the very best the world offers and its often involved the services of a professional tour guide. They are an essential part of the whole process but I do have a few things I wish ALL my tour guides would do and humbly submit the following list with greater explanation below:
1. Introduce me to the rest of the group While all the good tour guides introduce themselves, the very best tour guides go the extra step to use techniques to introduce the guests to each other. What can start as a busload of random tourists can come back to the cruise ship or hotel as a unified team which tends to multiply the total experience for every person on the tour including the tour guide. Strategies include literally introducing each couple as they board a bus (note: the names aren't generally as important as where the people are from - this gives the excuse to bond) or inviting people to introduce themselves. If the bus comes to you already full, then do the group thing and invite people to call out their names, countries, states and/or cities and you are one step closer to building a true touring team. 2. Help me remember my tour guide name I don't know about you but I have a tough time remembering a name. Add in some time zones, a name probably based in another language, a native language, a missing name badge or too small to read unless I am standing right next to you and if you only tell me your name once, it will be forgotten. An excellent tour guide will repeat their name several times in a variety of ways to ensure I have it on the tip of my tongue to potentially ask questions, say a big thanks at the end of a tour and hopefully hand over a tip in appreciation for a great tour. Its a rare tour guide that doesn't make a proper introduction but the trick is to weave in reminders of the name throughout the tour. Probably the easiest technique is to make up questions in the manner of: "I know someone out there wants to ask this question, Lance, what do you think about...?" 3. Understand the concept of: Information Rich/Information Poor This is a simple concept. The tour guide is information rich and the guests are information poor. The trick is for the tour guide to figure out which information guests need and when they need it. For starters, its a rare guest that has memorized the brochure, website or wherever they got the original tour description so this is information worth repeating and worth repeating throughout the tour. For example I wish my tour guide would start off the tour by reminding me of what we are going to do: "So today on our adventorous city tour we are going to visit 4 special locations, 1,2,3 and 4...". Now I have focus and that reminder of what my tour is going to look like. After we finish visiting location #1, I would love it if my tour guide would do the recap: "so that was site #1 and now we are onto site 2, with sites 3 & 4 still to come..." This way I know from event to event exactly what is going on, just enough information to keep me out of the information-poor house. A second note behind Information Rich/Information Poor is the type of information shared with the guests. Trust me, the guests are much more interested in things like: Are there bathrooms and if so how nice? Where will I be able to buy batteries for my dead camera? and What are the food options? than they are about when the church construction started. Give a guest safety and security from the Information Rich brains of a good tour guide and the guests will be ready for the rest of the tour. 4. Make connections My tour guide shares with me: "Construction of the church began in 1531..." which to be honest, I can't relate to. I'm having trouble relating to 2010 as a new decade and simply can't imagine what was happening in the 1500's let alone 1531. However if my tour guide says: "Construction of the church began in 1531, a mere 40 years after Christopher Columbus landed in the new world..." then all of a sudden I have a "connection". I understand 40 years and I have some idea of the history of Columbus and now have a context. A second connection can be in a comparison mode. I may or may not impressed when my tour guide points to the huge rock and tells me: "That specially carved rock weighs 300 tons" but I will definitely be impressed if he/she adds: "that is the equivalent of the weight of 300 standard sized automobiles"... Make a connection to something I can relate to and I will walk away with 5 times the understanding and 10 times the awe. Of course all tour guides are totally conversant in miles to kilometers and pounds to kilograms and share both sets of data when making the connections, ¿right? 5. Invite me to see more This thought came to particularly after sitting through yet another City Tour, the most often taken tour in a standard tour set. After a City Tour the tour guides are always gracious with their thanks and best wishes but I wish they did was invite me to see more of their beautiful city, culture, country, world... I would have liked my tour guide to end their City Tour something like this: "This brings us to the end of our short time together and I trust you enjoyed a taste of our beautiful city but I have to be honest with you, I am a little sad. While we shared some great things this morning/afternoon/day, there is so much more to show you in our beautiful city/region/country and I hope you will be able to find the time in your journey to see more..." The guest may have already booked up every free moment of their journey but there is always more to see and discover and if not on this trip then on the next one. Every guest should leave a tour a little thirsty for the next course. ¡The Next 5 on the List! Oh yes,¡ the list continues! If you are interested in hearing the next five, drop me a line. I would also be interested in knowing if you have one that you think should be in the top 5. ¡Cheers! |
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