Your Life After Guiding

Starting your career as a tour guide at a young age you tend to think that you will be a guide for the rest of your life.

Most tour guides want to do it forever, the only problem is that it is tough. It is tough on you emotionally and physically, and many guides start leaving the business, or start looking for other avenues to wander into, after only a few years.

Being on the road constantly, not having a place to call home and not being weighed down by worldly things are the reasons tour guides start working, but these are the exact same reasons most of them start looking for more stable jobs after a while. One needs to start planting roots at some point in life, but luckily the life of a tour guide can lead to many different industries and opportunities, so there is no need to worry.

What Can I Do After My Career as a Permanent Tour Guide, or When I Decide to Settle Down?

As a tour guide you gain many quality skills, like how to speak to people, how to be there for people, how to plan events, tours, and schedule time tables and itineraries, how to speak in public and handle crowds. You can go from that to being a VIP tour guide. Your hours will be less, your pay will be more and you will get to meet very important people on your tour, maybe even the occasional celebrity.

You could also choose to become a freelancer. As a freelancer you will be able to set your own hours, timetable, and work on your own terms. This may also lead to you starting your own tour company, although this can be stressful.

As a tour guide you usually work under a tour manager, so there is the opportunity for you to become a tour manager yourself. While the tour manager does travel to destinations for research, he or she does hold a more stable job, as most of the time is spent in the office planning tours and setting up marketing plant and itineraries for tours.

Quick Fact: An ex-tour guide can become a VIP tour guide too, giving them the chance to work less and earn more, while still being able to meet important people.

Other Un-related Jobs that an Ex-Tour Guide Can Go Into

As a tour guide you get to rub shoulders with very important people. A lot of the time tour groups are filled with various CEOs of large corporations and company VPs. If you play your cards right, you can open up some doors into other exciting jobs through these important contacts.

As you gain the skills for planning and co-ordination as a tour guide, the most common fields for ex-tour guides to go into is event planning or teaching.

Others jobs that tour guides can go into with their skills include:

• Admissions Counselor in the Health Profession
• Lead Supervisor for Museum Tour Guides
• Product Development Manager (tours)
• Software Engineer (field related)
• Human Resources Manager

The skills you acquire as a tour guide are useful in many different industries, and can help you to find other work, once you decide to settle down in one area, or once you decide to retire from leading tour groups.

Quick Summary:

• Go into just about any field you like after you retire from being a tour guide.
• Opportunity to earn more money and be your own boss
• Tour guide skills are valuable in other industries.