Contribution of Tour Guiding in Sustainability:
- The tour guide plays an important role in being the chief information provider for tourists. The tour guide is responsible for every kind of experience ranging from creature comfort through nature and heritage interpretation for the tourist for 24 hours a day, until they leave the tourist destination.
- The tour guide plays a critical role in developing critical awareness among tourists about the importance of contributing to protecting the cultural and natural heritage of a host country.
Also read Tour Guiding
- The information provided by the tour guide in nature and heritage interpretation serves to be educative in nature. It eventually leads to creating a group of tourists who understand their responsibilities and limitations in the tourist destination.
Therefore, tourists tend to have educated entertainment without abusing the local regulations. They are able to experience the tourist destination by obeying the expected rules of the land. The tourists develop a kind of commitment to preserve the interests of the destination.
- Environmental and culture protection information is also delivered by the tour guide as a part of the interpretation process. As informants and educators, tour guides train the tourists with tips and tricks to enjoy the tourist spot without disturbing the environment or culture of the place.
- Tourists are of different types and they have a different purpose for the visit. Some are here for adventure while some are here for peace of mind; and some are here for health related help. Depending upon the needs of individual tourists, the tour guide helps the tourists plan their trip by helping them avoid trips and attractions that do not naturally serve their purpose of visit.
When the tourists are rightly guided to serve the purpose of their visit, they are impressed and they leave the place with a positive experience.
Also read Tour Guiding in a museum
- Tour guides do not compel tourists to participate in an activity. They just explain to tourists about how good a particular place is. They also educate them about what is special about the attraction and they eventually guide them to the place only if the tourist expresses a natural interest to see the place.
- For adventure tourists, the tour guides provide them with safety information to deal with dangers that are related to activities like mountaineering, trekking, camping, etcetera. They help with valuable information about how to avoid dangers when visiting with dangerous and sensitive areas.
The tour guide ultimately delivers the visitors with the best experience they can possibly get in a tourist destination.
Also read Job of a Tour Guide
- The tour guide gives a clear presentation to visitors about what is worthy of preservation in the tourist place. They interpret everything that is unique, rare and worthy of protection in the process.
- The tour guide protects the tourist from dishonest sellers, thieves and exploitive beggars. They encourage the tourists to interact with the locals by educating them about the local tradition, custom, religion, ritual, values and risks. By being interpretive of the local culture, the tour guide plays a major role in avoiding misunderstandings.
- When it comes to shopping for products, the tour guide provides the right information about the price to be paid and they recommend the right local shops to buy from. This helps the local community to make money, and the tourist is helped to buy something of value for the right price.
The tour guide recommends cleanliness and responsible tourism throughout the stay of the tourists.
Also read Present status of Tour Guides
- Protected area tourism takes a lot of interpretation and scheduling of the visits to help the tourists maintain the natural and cultural features of the visited sites. Tour guides ensure sustainability by dividing the visitors in to small groups, thereby limiting the group size visiting with a particular area.
- When tourism and profits have developed in a protected area, cooperation from the local community becomes important to avoid over invasion of locals to establish businesses in the protected areas. This is governed by government regulations.
During such scenarios, in the absence of government regulation, the locals might choose to give up on their traditional activities to the new found profit making option, thereby losing out on their natural culture. In such cases, restrictions and sponsorship from government becomes important for the locals to continue with the traditional activities, which is in reality one of the actual attraction for tourists.
Contribution of Tour Guiding in Sustainability
