How to Keep your Tour Guides Motivated?

Sometimes on a trip, it’s not about the where or the what, but the who. Great tour guides make all the difference! For the travelers and for the travel agency. Thanks to the motivated tour guides, a travel company gets great reviews and more travelers.

Tour guides bring a profit! Hence, every good travel agency stimulates their tour guides’ motivation. You should do it, too.

How to Keep Tour Guides Motivated?

If you are walking towards a pile of T-shirts with your tour company logo on it, stop. There are some things you should know. Your most motivated tour guides were guiding groups through all weather conditions. They got wet and sunburned! No matter how tired, they were still smiling when travelers asked them to add an extra place to their travel itinerary. And they reorganized the tour on the spot.

Dear tour operators, only the best tour guides have this very special set of skills! So, show them your appreciation with more than a T-shirt with a tour company logo. Rather, reward them with gifts that reflect your appreciation. So, they know you’re aware there are many tour guide problems, which won’t stop them from being great at their jobs.

Rewards That Will Make Every Tour Guide Happy

We made a list of reward ideas that will keep your tour guides motivated! Here are some examples of rewards they would like:

1. Gift Card for the Tour Guide of the Month

Nominate tour guide of a month. Winner gets a gift card. Believe me, there’s a special feeling you get when you buy a spa day or a pair of comfortable tour guide shoes. And you know your travel agency just treated you to it.

2. Team-Building for the Tour Guiding Team

Tour guide rewards don’t have to be given on an individual basis. There are a bunch of rewards you can offer to help inspire stronger bonds between tour guides. And that bond is an incredibly valuable asset for both, them and the tour and activity business as a whole.

3. Tour Guide’s Time Off

Even the most motivated tour guides ever, who absolutely love their jobs, need a little extra time for themselves. So, why not offer some time off to your guiding team? Consider providing vouchers for a house cleaning. Or a lunch in a restaurant for the whole family as a reward. It will give them back their precious time they would have spent cleaning or cooking.

Need more ideas?

If you work in a small travel company, consider integrating online booking software to your website. It’s a real time savior. For the whole company, tour guides included.

4. Tour Guide Professional Development

Tour guide professional development is good for both – tour guides and travel company. For that reason, many travel agencies offer a subsidy for tour guide courses, seminars, and conferences. It’s a way to improve public speaking, absorb a large amount of new information, meet people and expand skill sets. Besides that, if tour guides in your travel company aren’t licensed, they might want to become official tour guides. So, tour guide certification seems to be a great reward for them!

5. Tour Guide’s Health

To be active all day, you have to be in a good physical health. So, here are few examples of rewards that can help maintain tour guide’s healthy lifestyle:

• Annual rental card for city bikes. Nowadays, almost every city has a bicycle-sharing system. So, this is a great way to take care of your tour guide’s health. At the same time, you cover their transit cost.
• A gym membership could also help your tour guides to maintain their physical health.
• Yoga classes are needed just to take a few moments to step back and reset. Offering a yoga class to tour guides can be a great reward. Especially after a hard day’s work with different people and personalities.
• Sore throat remedies, such as sage tea, a jar of honey, or pastilles for a sore throat. Great gifts that will create a special bond between travel agency owner and a tour guide. Because it shows understanding that the voice is their main working tool. And what a better way to prevent losing voice?!

Again – and we can’t say this enough – satisfaction with their jobs will maintain tour guides motivated. And they will perform better. So, tour guide’s motivation is in your mutual interest. And now you know how to encourage it!

Reach out to us in case you need some help! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Or share it right here.

Finally, share this blog post with your colleagues and keep your tour guides motivated!

Have a nice day!

ORIOLY
on May 10, 2017

by Lidija Šomodi