Tourism is a constantly evolving phenomenon, new trends in demand constantly appear, new types and subtypes of tourist activities, etc. Likewise, the sustainable development of tourism represents a state policy in many countries, playing a transcendental role in its sustainable development.
In this context, the tourist guide must be a qualified professional, since he plays a transcendental and critical role from the point of view of the marketing of tourist destinations. Tourist entertainers have very similar but not the same performance terms within their professional competence, it is among others, that this work aims to make a contribution to the general aspects of professional guiding, synthesizing the main characteristics, functions, typology as well as the main techniques and general tools of guiding and the management of tourist groups, the differences and similarities that exist between these important professions that sometimes tend to confuse their professional functions.
The reader will find in this work applied, precise and practical information regarding the central theme that will contribute to the integral formation of both professions.
The profession of tourist guide arose in the contour of the main monuments, museums and other assets belonging to the receiving areas of visitors. In its beginnings, this activity was the consequence of a spontaneous aptitude, which over the years acquired a legal context to become what it is today, so we can find various types of guides such as those specialized in: ecotourism, fishing, hunting, flora and fauna observation, urban and rural tourism, etc. There are also freelancers, who are self-employed.
According to the dictionary, guide: to guide
-That which directs or directs
-A person who guides, leads and teaches another the way.
-A person authorized to teach outsiders the remarkable things of a city, or to accompany visitors to a museum and give them information about the exhibits.
Let's define a concept:
Tourist Guide: He is a professional responsible for the reception and driving to different groups in stipulated areas, his function is to inform, direct and guide tourists during their stay in a designated region. Whether they are nationals or foreigners, making them feel welcome. Without forgetting that the client pays for what he likes, not for what the guide is interested in, hence he has the responsibility to adapt to the requirements and needs of his clients.
The tourism guide in the national context (as well as in many countries that constitute and / or contain important receiving tourist centers) is a technical, qualified and specialized professional, with a strengthened value system and with a great capacity to develop interpersonal relationships, whose main functions are to lead and inform - in a planned and organized and truthful way - to tourist groups in certain destinations and / or routes and during established periods.
The tourist guide must develop in parallel a fairly solid value system and a comprehensive competence system. Among the main values we can highlight: honesty, responsibility, solidarity, justice, cultural identity, among others. In the field of competences, the tourist guide must develop competences in three general aspects:
to. Service attitude: predisposition, pro activity, smile, kindness, empathy, etc.
b. Knowledge applied to Tourism:
• Scientists: geographic, historical, archaeological, architectural, ecological, psychological, etc.
• Idiomatic: at least one foreign language.
• Practical: routes, service hours, weather, currency exchange, idiosyncrasies of different cultures, first aid, etc.
c. Abilities:
• Communicational.
• In the development of interpersonal relationships.
• In the practice of first aid.
• Good physical condition.
The guides must have developed the last two aspects to a greater or lesser degree depending on their specialization.
Who are and what the animators do, let's define concepts:
Tourist entertainer: He is a professional who is responsible for the planning, organization and execution of activities, socio-cultural, sports, recreational, etc., in tourist facilities. He is the one who provides the means for distraction, but he is not always an actor, he allows each person to discover himself. And its activities are designed taking into account the ages and sexes of the participants. He seeks socialization among all clients, making them spend their free time with family, gaining in quality of life. In his work he performs public relations functions, athlete, artist, decorator, marketing, etc. In short, it is a competent and useful staff in a hotel or other tourist facility.
According to the dictionary, animator:
-Del latin, animator, -oris
-What encourages
-Person who presents and entertains a variety show.
Animation: Effect of cheering, action, giving life, entertaining.
The Tourist Animation is a service that grows more and more within the hotel activity, in its beginnings we can locate the minstrels, as one of the first entertainers, although they did not carry out their functions in hotels or tourist facilities, if they travel from a place to another transmitting culture. Then we have the Club Med hotel chain as the initiator of animation in our days, today many tourist places where the client stays for a certain time have the tourist animation service that constitutes the backbone of the institution, as this profession allows Build customer loyalty and offer a wide range of activities according to their interests and needs, which is why it is extraordinary to find the tourist entertainer working in these places.
But let's know some functions of the guide and the animator that make them similar:
-Know fully the tourist offer and public services in your region.
-Be familiar with the cultural customs and idiosyncrasy of the visitors and visited.
- Be courteous, cordial and tolerant in the treatment.
-Know how to provide valuable information to tourists during their walks, visits or shows.
-To have a good presence, to be impeccably dressed and properly identified.
-Have participated in first aid courses.
Both the guide and the entertainer must be someone who, having the necessary cultural training, is capable of transmitting it in an understandable and pleasant way, relying on communication techniques, also balancing it with careful coordination, on a practical level, of all the elements that They intervene in the provision of the tourist service, using at all times the most basic principles of group dynamics according to the cast that accompanies them at those times.
Both professions, although they have a common objective, which is the direct treatment of the client as strategies are developed that tend to facilitate the creation of human contacts so that integration, communication and socialization between the members of the group, of the professionals who They often depend on the degree of satisfaction of the client who tours or stays in a tourist institution, therefore, become a guide or a well-trained tourist entertainer.
The guide and the entertainer must work as a team, with the same objective of ensuring that the client has a good time and returns, then each must help the performance of the other by giving the necessary spaces for both professions.
