Tour guiding is important to tourism � Madikwe

Isaac Pinielo | Friday December 12, 2014 10:54

 

Speaking at a tour guiding book launch at the University of Botswana (UB) last week, Madikwe indicated that being a very good tour guide is a challenging job and that for many tourists, the tour guide plays a key role in the enjoyment of the trip.

“As most of you would know, especially those that have taken a guided tour, if you encounter a bad tour guide, one who isn’t very knowledgeable, or has poor communication skills, it can really negatively affect the quality of your experience and also your ultimate decision to recommend the guide or tour company to other tourists,” she said.

She noted that tour guides perform many different roles including being entertainers, leaders, entrepreneurs, cultural brokers, group managers, and so on. In addition, she said they often have to drive buses, cook meals, apply first aid, deal with difficult clients and liaise with other tourism professionals.

“But one of the important roles of a tour guide is to help people to understand and appreciate what they are seeing and experiencing, such as the people, the environment, history, the culture, landscapes and the geography, what is known as interpretive guiding,” said Madikwe.

According to the permanent secretary, excellent tour guides open up unseen or unimagined worlds and they let tourists peek. 

She said they engage tourists’ imaginations in ways that transform the everyday into something really interesting, magical or profound; or sad, confronting or even frightening.

“For tour guides to achieve these outcomes, they need to have the rare ability to establish easy rapport with their tour group, regardless of whether they are running a short tour of may be an hour, of a special exhibit at an art gallery or museum, or whether they are accompanying a group for three weeks as they explore the national parks of Botswana,” she said.

Madikwe added that tour guides should be passionate about the places they are guiding people through and that they should have a wonderful ability to communicate in ways that capture the interests of their group.

About the launched book, Tour Guiding Research, Insights, Issues and Implications, written by Professor Rosemary Black and Betty Weiler, Madikwe stated that it brings attention to the role of the tour guide.