Travel Guides
Plan, organize, and conduct long-distance travel, tours, and expeditions for individuals and groups.
Most important skills
- Service Orientation
- Speaking
- Active Listening
- Social Perceptiveness
- Coordination
- Persuasion
- Reading Comprehension
- Time Management
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Sales and Marketing
- Administrative
- Transportation
- Administration and Management
- Geography
- Economics and Accounting
What the work involves
- Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites.
- Resolve any problems with itineraries, service, or accommodations.
- Sell travel packages.
- Arrange for tour or expedition details such as accommodations, transportation, equipment, and the availability of medical personnel.
- Evaluate services received on the tour, and report findings to tour organizers.
- Attend to special needs of tour participants.
- Give advice on sightseeing and shopping.
- Administer first aid to injured group participants.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Social, Enterprising, Conventional.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (45.8% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (42.4%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 1 month, up to and including 3 months (48.4%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Travel Guides is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
- Projection education uses SOC 39-7010 (aggregate); it may describe a broader group.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 85% of occupations compared | 81% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 85% of occupations compared | 67% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Moderate | Higher on teamwork than 59% of occupations compared | 66% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 94% of occupations compared | 78% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 67% of occupations compared | 38% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Moderate | Lower on conflict situations than 55% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 61% of occupations compared | 44% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Low | Lower on consequence of error than 74% of occupations compared | 51% of surveyed respondents chose “Serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: moderate
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 19.32%
- Constant contact with others: 80.68%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 14.76%
- Important: 3.7%
- Very important: 14.2%
- Extremely important: 67.35%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2022
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 2.69%
- Important: 22.51%
- Very important: 9.26%
- Extremely important: 65.54%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2022
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 0.97%
- Some freedom: 21.1%
- A lot of freedom: 77.93%
n = 19, Incumbent 08/2022
Time pressure
- Never: 3.66%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 20.45%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 37.73%
- Every day: 38.16%
n = 20, Incumbent 08/2022
Conflict situations
- Never: 5.07%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 38.98%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 33.53%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 19.58%
- Every day: 2.84%
n = 20, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 43.59%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 18.2%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 37.27%
- Every day: 0.95%
n = 20, Incumbent 08/2022
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 19.55%
- Fairly serious: 22.02%
- Serious: 50.69%
- Very serious: 5.79%
- Extremely serious: 1.95%
n = 19, Incumbent 08/2022
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O*NET-SOC 39-7012.00 · SOC 39-7010 (aggregate, low confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8