Tour and Travel Guides

Summary

What Tour and Travel Guides Do About this section

Tour and travel guides plan routes and talking points for tours.

Tour and travel guides lead individuals or groups on excursions to various points of interest, including historical locations, museums, and monuments.

Duties

Tour and travel guides typically do the following:

• Arrange services or reservations for clients
• Research topics related to their tour, such as site history or local attractions
• Plan routes and talking points for tours
• Greet clients and collect fees or tickets
• Escort individuals or groups through areas of interest and provide related information
• Monitor the pacing of their tour and adjust to fit the group’s needs
• Answer client questions

Tour guides and travel guides have similar duties and sometimes serve both roles at once or switch between them. Both interact with people and share information about the places or things that visitors will see and experience. They lead groups and answer questions, providing additional support as needed when issues arise. Self-employed tour and travel guides also may have responsibilities related to running their business, such as marketing and recordkeeping.

Tour guides take people on sightseeing tours or lead them through places of interest, such as art galleries and public buildings. These workers often will lead tours based on their background knowledge or subjects that interest them. For example, a tour guide with an interest in architecture may lead architectural tours of a city. Tours vary in length, from less than an hour to more than 12 hours, depending on the number of places visited or the type of place visited. Tour guides may lead multiple tours in one day.

Tour guides who educate and engage with visitors in a museum may be called museum docents. Other types of tour guides include park interpreters, who take visitors through outdoor spaces, and historical interpreters, who help to re-create the past by playing the part of a particular character in history.

Travel guides plan, organize, and accompany clients on long-distance travel, tours, and expeditions. They typically manage all travel, lodging, and dining for their group. They also handle the logistics of getting their tour group from place to place and meeting local tour guides for tours around points of interest.

Some travel guides work as cruise directors, managing and planning hospitality events and experiences for passengers of cruise ships. Others, such as river expedition guides, might take people on adventure trips.

Work Environment About this section

Tour guides may work indoors or outdoors with a variety of audiences.

Tour and travel guides held about 55,800 jobs in 2024. The largest employers of tour and travel guides were as follows:

Tour and travel guides work in a variety of settings, such as museums, gardens, or other points of interest. They may spend long periods of time standing or walking while being exposed to the elements during outdoor tours. Some might travel with groups on buses or other forms of transportation. Travel guides who go on long-distance tours may spend extended periods of time away from home.

Work Schedules

Part-time work is common for tour and travel guides. Work schedules may vary and can include weekends, evenings, and holidays. The work may be seasonal, and tour and travel guides may be busier during peak travel times.

Travel guides will typically accompany groups of clients on their trips and may travel for multiple days in a row, often working long days during a trip, with time off in between.

How to Become a Tour or Travel Guide About this section

Tour and travel guides must be comfortable with public speaking.

Tour and travel guides typically need a high school diploma or the equivalent. Once hired, they usually receive training on the job. Some guides need a license.

Education

Tour and travel guides usually need a high school diploma or the equivalent, although entry requirements may vary. High school students interested in becoming a tour or travel guide may benefit from taking classes such as history, art, or foreign languages.

Some tour and travel guides choose to pursue a bachelor’s degree. Although there is no standard degree program , common fields of degree include business, education, and fine and performing arts. Fluency in more than one language may be useful for tour and travel guides.

Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations

Tour and travel guides in some locations, such as New York City and Washington, D.C., may need a locally issued license. Obtaining a license might require passing an exam, a background check, and paying a fee. Contact your city or town licensing agency for more information.

Guides who lead hunting, fishing, or recreational trips may need a state-issued license. Information on state licensing board requirements is available from CareerOneStop.

Cruise directors must have a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to work onboard the ship.

Some tour and travel guides need to have a valid driver’s license or a commercial driver’s license (CDL) if they drive for bus tours. Information on CDL requirements is available from your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

While not required, certification may show competence and proficiency in the field. Information on certifications is available from CareerOneStop.

Training

Tour and travel guides typically receive on-the-job training after they are hired. Training may include studying tour materials or leading practice tours with an experienced guide.

Important Qualities

The following are examples of qualities that are important for these workers to perform their duties. For more information, visit the Employment Projections (EP) skills data page.

Adaptability. Tour and travel guides must be able to handle changing environments and situations while leading their groups. For those who work outdoors, adjusting their plans for changing weather conditions is an important part of their work.

Customer-service skills. Tour and travel guides must be courteous and helpful when answering clients’ questions and responding to their needs.

Detail oriented. Tour and travel guides share large amounts of detailed information with clients on tours. They also must pay close attention to the specific aspects involved with leading group travel, such as arranging dining plans and coordinating itineraries.

Interpersonal skills. Tour and travel guides should be empathetic, engaging, and friendly to develop a good rapport with the individuals and groups that they lead.

Speaking and listening skills. Tour and travel guides must be comfortable addressing and interacting with both large and small groups of people in a variety of environments.

Pay About this section

The median annual wage for tour and travel guides was $36,660 in May 2024. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $26,890, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $59,930.

In May 2024, the median annual wages for tour and travel guides in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Many self-employed tour and travel guides set their own rate. Clients may provide tour and travel guides with tips to show appreciation for their services. Tips are included in the wage data shown.

Part-time work is common for tour and travel guides. Work schedules may vary and can include weekends, evenings, and holidays. The work may be seasonal, and tour and travel guides may be busier during peak travel times.

Travel guides will typically accompany groups of clients on their trips and may travel for multiple days in a row, often working long days during a trip, with time off in between.

Job Outlook About this section

Employment of tour and travel guides is projected to grow 8 percent from 2024 to 2034, much faster than the average for all occupations.

About 13,000 openings for tour and travel guides are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

Employment

Participation in leisure activities at public buildings, art galleries, and other places of interest is expected to drive employment growth for tour and travel guides. Greater emphasis on leisure experiences may support consistent growth for travel professionals. People are expected to continue to seek out the expertise of tour and travel guides to provide information and entertainment at museums, historical sites, parks, and other recreation locations.

State & Area Data About this section

Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for over 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The link below goes to OEWS data maps for employment and wages by state and area. Use the dropdown boxes to select an occupation.

• Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Profiles

Projections Central

Occupational employment projections are developed for all states by Labor Market Information (LMI) or individual state Employment Projections offices. All state projections data are available at www.projectionscentral.org. Information on this site allows projected employment growth for an occupation to be compared among states or to be compared within one state. In addition, states may produce projections for areas; there are links to each state’s websites where these data may be retrieved.

CareerOneStop

CareerOneStop includes hundreds of occupational profiles with data available by state and metro area. There are links in the left-hand side menu to compare occupational employment by state and occupational wages by local area or metro area. There is also a salary info tool to search for wages by zip code.

Contacts for More Information About this section

For information on local licensing requirements for tour and travel guides, contact your city or town licensing agency.

For information about state licensing board requirements, visit CareerOneStop.

For information on the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) for cruise directors, contact the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

For information about certifications, visit CareerOneStop.

For information on volunteer docent roles at the Smithsonian museums, visit

Smithsonian Institution

CareerOneStop

For career videos on tour and travel guides, visit

Tour Guides and Escorts

Travel Guides

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Tour Guides and Escorts

Travel Guides