Glossary
Tour Guide Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential tour guide terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key tour guide vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in tour guide training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Accessibility
- Making tours usable for all.
- Docent
- A museum guide.
- Gratuity
- A tip.
- Group size
- The number of travelers.
- Headcount
- Counting the group.
- Interpretation
- Explaining meaning and history.
- Itinerary
- The planned schedule.
- Leave No Trace
- Outdoor ethics principles.
- Meeting point
- Where tours start.
- Rain plan
- An alternate plan for bad weather.
- Script
- Prepared tour content.
- Step-on guide
- A local guide who joins a bus tour.
- Tour director
- A guide who travels with a group for multiple days.
- Tour operator
- A company that sells tours.
- Waiver
- A liability form for adventure tours.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Tour Guide practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Tour Guide training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.