Tour Guiding as a Career
If you love sharing San Francisco's history, culture and beauty with your out-of-town guests, and you enjoy meeting people from all over the country and the world, then tour guiding might be a perfect career for you! (Being well organized, customer-service focused, and good at problem solving are pretty helpful too!) People come into this field from every background imaginable, and no matter what your past experiences have been, you’ll put them to good use.
There are various ways to be a tour guide. Some people find that it works best for them to do it as a volunteer. Most museums train docents to lead gallery tours, and many cities have organizations such as historical societies that train people to lead walking tours. Locally, there is a non-profit group called San Francisco City Guides whose volunteers present free walking tours all over the city. (Taking their tours is also a great way to learn more about San Francisco in preparation for leading volunteer or paid tours.)
For those who would like to be paid to lead tours, there are two general options:
- Some people lead "over the road" tours, which can last from a few days to several weeks and go anywhere in the world, using buses, cruise ships, bikes, etc. These “Tour Directors” are responsible for many things in addition to delivering interesting commentary, for example, arranging group meals and checking the group into hotels.
- Others prefer to be local tour guides in the San Francisco area. This is a great place for tour guiding since so many visitors come here. Local guides mostly focus on the tour itself since they might be with the guests for only a few hours, but sometimes there are other responsibilities, such as meeting the group at the airport when they first arrive.
Types of Employers and Tours
For local tour guiding, some typical employers include:
- Walking tour and food tour operators (neighborhoods such as Chinatown and North Beach).
- “Bus tour” operators, many of which use the same person to drive the vehicle and give the tour. Most offer training for new employees (in some cases a commercial driver’s license must be obtained). Vehicles range from full-size buses to small vans or even regular cars.
- National tour operators who hire "step-on guides" to give a local tour when their multi-day bus tours are passing through the city.
- Companies that specialize in tours for student groups (ranging from 4th grade history tours to university performance groups).
- Cruise ship shore excursion operators.
- Destination management companies (DMC's), which provide various services to corporate groups, from greeting the guests at the airport to escorting them to dinners, to leading tours for them.
Tour guides are often hired to provide introductory "highlights" tours of the city, but there are also many specialty tours, such as those that focus on a certain neighborhood or a certain aspect of history. Muir Woods and Napa/Sonoma Wine Country tours are common.
As you can see, there are many types of tours and many types of groups. Whether you want to stay local or travel the world, work with children or seniors, be on a bus or a bicycle, every tour guide can find their perfect niche!
Can I Support Myself as a Tour Guide?
It must be said that some people find it challenging to make a living as a tour guide -- it can be difficult to have a full schedule of work because many people are independent contractors or on-call employees rather than full time employees, and the jobs often have no benefits. Many people combine tour guiding with other part-time work, or use it as a retirement job.
However, there definitely are many people who work full time and are able to support themselves, and some do quite well financially. Those who achieve success in this field often love their work!
How to Begin
Many people begin their tour guide careers by attending training programs, in person and/or online, offered by companies such as:
Joining the San Francisco Tour Guide Guild has many benefits for those entering the field, including the opportunity to network with experienced guides and participate in training tours. You can apply for membership here.
We hope this has helped answer your questions, but feel free to send us an email at members@sftgg.org if you would like more information.