Skills
Tour Guide Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in tour guides, and how to build and show them.
What skills do tour guides need?
Tour Guides need technical skills such as public speaking, local history knowledge, and group management, plus people skills like enthusiasm and communication. They also use tools such as Microphones and speakers and Maps and route plans.
Technical (hard) skills
- Public speaking
- Local history knowledge
- Group management
- First aid
- Route planning
- Storytelling
People (soft) skills
- Enthusiasm
- Communication
- Flexibility
- Patience
Tools, equipment and technology
- Microphones and speakers
- Maps and route plans
- Radios or phones
- Tour booking software
- First aid kits
- Umbrellas and signs
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how tour guides put their skills to work:
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Public speaking” and “Local history knowledge.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “enthusiasm,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as City tour guide license near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our tour guide glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our Tour Guide training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.