How Tour Guides Earn Money

If you want to be a tour guide you need to watch this! Nick discusses how tour guides earn their money – namely wages, commission and tips – and talks about which one is best for your situation.

It is important to mention that many tour guides are becoming self-employed and are being hired directly, as a result getting paid by the service provided, not by wages, commission or tips.

Many tour guides are self-employed


A comment from Andrew, a viewer:
“An increasing number of tour companies are starting to pay their guides a good wage. It’s in the interest of those companies to employ guides at a set amount to stop the guides from begging for more money through tips at the end of the day. It can be a sore point for customers who have paid up front to then be asked to donate more cash to their tour manager. Also the tourists are here to visit places they want to see, not get shoved into a tat selling ‘gift’ shop for 20 minutes because the guide gets a kick back. And going to an “average” restaurant that the guide tries to sell you as being “great” because they get 10% per meal back in their pocket. Guides like that are better off being avoided. From what I can see tour companies, at least in the UK, pay their guides a good wage to stamp out this controversial issue of manipulating a tourists precious time for kickbacks and then expecting a tip as well.”

Now watch this video on tour guiding introduction and outroduction, or this one: how to be a funny tour guide.