Tour Guiding

This book focuses on the importance of a tour guide who is a vital linkpin in the tourism industry. Being a frontline service provider, a tour guide is responsible for the 'Moments of Truth' faced by the tourists at a destination. A tour guide has a strategic role in facilitating a smooth and a memorable holiday experience for a traveller. He wears different hats at different times. He is not only responsible towards the tourists for providing them with the right information about the attractions in an engaging way on a tour while also entertaining them, but he also carries the onus of fulfilling the multiple expectations of various other stakeholders that he is associated with. Thus, this book emphasises on understanding the role of a tour guide from various stakeholders perspectives especially in the Indian context. These stakeholders may include the travel agent/tour operator for whom the tour guide may be working for; ; the tourists that may include both inbound and domestic tourists; the hoteliers/restaurateurs; tourist officers representing the Government of India; managers of attractions; merchandisers and the tour guides themselves.