Promoting Your Skills

While many tour escorts have a college degree, it's almost never required by tour companies. It does, however, help convince employers that you have the speaking skills and ability to learn the fundamentals of guiding a tour.

Advanced degrees in certain areas, such as ecology, history, or foreign languages, can be extremely helpful or even required for certain specialty tours.

If you don't have a college degree, there are still plenty of opportunities available. In the tour business, personality and experience count for a lot, and many positions - particularly shore excursion operators and seasonal tour jobs in Alaska - are actually dominated by college students and others without college degrees.

Do not get discouraged from applying for any tour guide job, even if you have never personally visited any of the places shown in company brochures and know little about the tour locations. While previous travel knowledge is helpful, it's not totally necessary. Many companies will provide extensive training for new guides and escorts. Training often involves "shadowing" another guide for several tours in order to observe their techniques, learn company procedures, and become familiar with the geographical area. Tour narrative is often provided by the companies, but guides are encouraged to do research on their own in much the same way a student would research a term paper. The more insights you have, the more valuable you become.

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