Tour Guiding
The Dream Part-Time Job.
If you’ve always dreamed of expanding your horizons and making a difference in the world, you don’t have to quit your job to do it. Business is picking up in the travel industry, and there’s a growing need for part-time tour guides.
“Travel is definitely on the rebound. The job market for tour guides has improved substantially in the past few months,” says Ted Bravos, founder of the International Tour Management Institute (ITMI), a state-certified school that since 1976 has trained individuals to become professional tour directors and guides. At ITMI, students learn not only the ins and outs of the profession, but how to get a job.
“A lot of people think tour directing means packing your bags and heading off to far away places. That isn’t always the case.” says Bravos. “Our graduates are often called on to conduct tours of the area where they live -- they are goodwill ambassadors to visitors from around the world.”
Pam Boudrot, a 1991 ITMI graduate, has been splitting her time between acting and tour guiding for more than a decade. “I had been all over the world with a traveling theater company and loved living out of a suitcase and waking up in new places; but after about the 180th performance, I had grown tired of doing the same show over and over again. One day I saw an ad for a tour guide/tour directing class in the paper and decided to check it out,” says Boudrot. She attended an informational seminar, and a few weeks later, decided to enroll. “Once I started working, the course paid for itself in just three weeks.”
The majority of the tours Boudrot leads are in her hometown of Los Angeles. Since she’s an actress, she enjoys taking people to Hollywood; but also visits Disneyland, Beverly Hills and Universal Studios, even though she leads tours all over the world. When she’s not leading tours, she pursues her other passion. She regularly appears in commercials and has had guest roles in a couple of sitcoms.
You don’t have to be a Hollywood actress to be a tour guide. Patricia Hunting, who lives in San Francisco, also decided to pursue tour guiding as a part-time job to supplement her income. She is a professional artist by trade.
“The job has been more lucrative than I ever imagined,” says Hunting. “Not only do I get good pay, I get to work in a field where I really enjoy my job, never get bored, and get to share vacation dreams come true with people every day.” Hunting is a 1997 graduate of ITMI.
Tour guides are paid on average $150 to $200 per day, plus all expenses. “Good pay is only part of the equation. Tour guides get to do something they love and touch the lives of their fellow travelers,” says Bravos.
“The people experience is the real payoff for me,” says Hunting. “I can think of no other profession where you get to have this much fun and get paid too.”
Courtesy of ARA Content