Taking Tour Groups Around the US: Tour Guide Tips

"Well, I would love to take groups around the U.S., how can I do it? Great answer. Great question, I'll give you the answer. If you are interested in doing domestic tourism, (that usually includes Canada, the United States and Mexico...if you are from this... from North America, they are sort of all considered domestic tours) you can work for an inbound tour operator. And the inbound tour operator will hire you to escort groups. If you are bilingual, it's a real plus. You don't have to be bilingual, because we also have visitors from Australia and New Zealand and England and such that speak English. But if you are bilingual, you have more of an asset. You're more of an asset because you can lead tours from other countries. And there's always a need in the United States for bilingual trained guides. It's hard to find in the United States. We just don't have it available like they do in the other countries. Very different type of tour than an international tour. The management is a lot easier. Because on an International tour you are dealing with flights and distance and different coaches, different guides every day. You are constantly juggling. On a domestic tour, you are on one coach for most of the trip. So for instance, let's say you wanted to lead a tour from Los Angeles to the National Parks - a real common tour, and a lot of people do that. It's often their first domestic tour. You'll get on the coach in Los Angeles with a driver, and you might spend a couple of days in L.A., go over to Phoenix, Scottsdale for a couple of days, do the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, sometimes Salt Lake City, often Las Vegas for a Vegas show and such and then the tour members will fly home a couple of weeks later. Your management is a lot easier. You are in the same coach. You're not dealing with airlines. You have the same driver. You set the scheduling. And so, the management is a lot easier than on an international tour. But, you do have to do the narration. So, you do need to know your geography, your plants, the geography, the history and such. You're not talking all the time, or they'll throw you out of the coach. But, maybe thirty percent of the time, when you're going across the desert, seventy-five percent of the time when you are in the major cities. So, but it's a great way to get into the business and we have so much in the United States to offer. So, once you'd get back to Salt Lake City or Los Angeles, the group will fly home, but you are on the same motor coach with the same driver and setting your own schedule. So in some ways it's easier. But you do do the narration, like I said. So you've got to be able to research and put that together. But you might be doing a fall foliage tour on the Northeast...in the Northeast in the fall. You might be doing a Southern California coastal tour. You might be doing the Canadian Rockies. Those are often considered domestic tours so...It's fun. It's exciting. And I think you'd really enjoy it. We have so much to see in the United States."