Tour guide
Tour Guides ( English tour leader ) are tourism professionals that the link between tour operators , destination and travelers represent and with the organization and implementation of a travel deal.
General
Tour guides play an important role in mass tourism . At the travel destination , you are responsible for looking after either specific tour groups or a large number of constantly changing tourists. They work together with tourists , tour operators and local service providers ( transport companies , hotels ). The tour guide is different from the guides by the fact that the latter exclusively tourist information is conveyed while the tour guide the whole organization of the trip through to acceptance and remedy of travel defects takes over.
history
The Greek writer Pausanias , who lived in the 2nd century, is said to have compiled everything worth knowing about Greek sites and monuments for tourist guides. In the rise of Christianity, pilgrimages became the most important travel motif for pilgrims , with men from the clergy taking over the tour guide. According to Karl Philipp Moritz , the Renaissance knew the rich cavaliers ( Italian da Milordo ) and the more frugal business travelers ( Italian alla mercantile , "like a merchant"; today English economy class ), the former accompanied on their educational trips by a travel marshal. After the first ascent of Mont Blanc (August 1786), the activity of a mountain guide developed in August 1787 , when the first ascent Jacques Balmat led a scientist to the summit. August Ludwig von Schlözer gave his first lectures on tourism in Göttingen in the winter semester of 1795/1796 and mentioned local tourist guides in Italy who specialized in antiquity. During the founding period, some travel guides specialized in museum guides or castle guides .
During National Socialism, “travel guides” took on important propaganda tasks. In the organization “ Kraft durch Freude ” (KdF), tour guides and tourist guides were seen as important carriers of information and propaganda work on tourism policy. Newspapers reported that travel guides highlighted those businesses that viewed the Imperial German traveler “not only as a guest, but also as a fellow national”.
The mass tourism that began in 1961 increased the number and function of tour guides, mainly due to the high number of tourists and increasing organizational problems.
Legal issues
Tour guides are typical of package tours . They represent at the resort to there usually not self-present tour operators, allowing travelers a travel defect according to § 651o BGB representative must notify the tour guide immediately. Tour guides can be employed by the tour operator as on-site tour guides or, as freelancers, can receive a power of attorney from the tour operator to represent them under travel law. In both cases, they are considered vicarious agents according to § 278 BGB, because they act with the knowledge and will of the tour operator in fulfilling its obligations under the travel contract, whereby main and ancillary service obligations as well as mere protective obligations according to § 241 para. 2 BGB are in question come.
qualification
In November 2011, the CEN defined some tourism terms and, under the European standard EN 13809, an elaboration on “Tourism services. Travel Agencies and Tour Operators ”published. According to this, a tour guide is a person who directs and supervises the travel process on behalf of the tour operator and ensures that the program is carried out in accordance with the contract between the tour operator and the traveling customer and who gives local practical information. The Commission found that the problems with the freedom to provide services submitted to it were in many cases due to the confusion of the two different but complementary professions of travel companion and tourist guide. In this context, she pointed out that the professional profile of the travel companion should not be confused with that of the tourist guide. According to CEN, guest / tour guides are the person who guide visitors in the language of their choice and explain the cultural and natural heritage of an area and usually have an area-specific qualification , which is usually issued and / or recognized by the competent authority. The travel companion is therefore a representative of a tour operator for the general care of travelers.
The tour guide is a job in Germany without a job description . According to the classification of occupations from 2010, the group of tour guides and tourist guides belongs to the commercial services . They look after travel groups during a trip or at their destination, take on organizational tasks, are the direct contact persons for travelers and provide information about countries and sights. Their tasks , activities , knowledge and skills typically include:
- Supervise travel groups throughout the trip, e.g. B. organize room allocation, transport or excursions;
- Receive complaints and suggestions and solve problems , e.g. B. organize a change of room, resolve conflicts ;
- Provide or convey information about the history, tradition and special features of a place or region;
- Select or visit destinations for guided tours to historical, art-historical or places of everyday or cultural life;
- Prepare and carry out guided tours, create concepts for lectures taking into account political, economic, social and cultural characteristics.
These tasks can be expanded depending on the requirements.
In some countries, e.g. Various institutions offer courses , for example in Germany , Austria and Switzerland . These range from one-day seminars to courses lasting several months and usually end with diplomas . In accordance with the Professional Recognition Directive , all EU member states must recognize such certificates, but they are not mandatory for activities as tour guides. For some years now there have also been many private training providers for first-time and lateral entrants who offer this professional profile in different seminars with different certificates. The duration of these seminars is very different. The IHK “travel guide” certificate has also existed since 2000, but this is not offered nationwide.
Site tour guide
The on-site tour guide is the representative of an organizer of stay trips stationed in the destination area and bound by instructions . His tasks include:
- the reception of the holidaymakers at the destination,
- Assistance in transferring guests from the train station, port or airport to their accommodation,
- the provision of initial information during this transfer,
- the implementation of welcome meetings, during which the tour guide provides detailed information about the country and people and about the excursion offers of the tour operator or the local travel company associated with him,
- the presence as a contact person in regular consultation hours, in which questions from the travel guests are answered, possible problems are solved as far as possible and complaints are received, and excursions or events are booked for the guests.
Travel agent
The travel supervisor usually accompanies the group throughout the trip and takes on the organizational responsibility on site, for example as an intermediary to hotels, restaurants and local guides. The demarcation between travel supervisor and tour guide can be found in legal interpretations, e.g. B. the trade regulations in Austria . So is z. For example, a travel agent in Austria is only allowed to point out sights, but not to provide further explanations. These are only allowed to local guides. A travel agent is usually more responsible for organizing a trip and not providing information about the country and its people.
literature
- Eckhard Block: Professional tour guide. Nordis, Essen 1985, 2004 (5th edition). ISBN 3-927145-03-3
Web links
- Definitions Guest or tourist guides, tour guides, travel companions of the European Committee for Standardization
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marie-Louise Schmeer-Sturm, travel guide: basic course , 2001, p. 10 f.
- ^ Karl Philipp Moritz, Travels of a German in Italy from 1786 to 1788 , Volume 1, 1792, p. 59
- ↑ Marie-Louise Schmeer-Sturm, travel guide: basic course , 2001, p. 13
- ^ CoR BKA / Interior 16, 520, 562-St.B / 37
- ↑ Wolfgang Fuchs / Jörn W. Mundt / Hans-Dieter Zollondz (eds.), Lexikon Tourismus , 2008, p. 556
- ↑ Federal and State Statistical Offices, Classification of Professions , Tour Guides, 2010 edition
