TM-6362 PROFESSIONAL ELECTIVE 3 – TOUR GUIDING

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THE HISTORY OF TOUR GUIDING

Module 003: The History of Tour Guiding

Course Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss the changing roles of guides from different ages of travel
2. Identify early motivations of travel that fostered the need for guiding
3. Know the contributions made by Thomas Cook to tour guiding

Tour Guiding is the one of the oldest professional of the world. It started evolutionally and not
revolutionary. Form an ancient empire, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Grand Tour
together with the Modern Time of Tour Guide.

The Ancient Empire

The era of the great empires form 3000 A.D. to 5000 A.D generated the travel, people traveled
in an organized manner, during the era of Greek Empire tourism flourished and the number of
guides increased.
Guides speak a language called “Periegetai.” This help them to be in a better condition, citizens
got the chance to travel. Many travelers continued to travel by land and sea. During the era, the
Greek Empire, the first great travelers were the Greeks. The role of tour guide were willing to share
the findings of their discoveries and observation with the rest of the world. People influenced to
travel by this reasons:
 Festivals
 Shows
 Olympic Game
In ancient Rome, travelers increased in number, they were interested with the beach shore
where the Greek ships had been pulled up.
Historical origin of tourism (Page and Connell 2009) notice in the ancient cultures of the Greek
and Roman social elite stating that “these early tourists pursued pleasure and relaxation in regions
away from the main towns and cities, the epitomize modern-day tourism: the pursuit of pleasure in
a location away from everyday life and the use of one’s leisure time for non-work purposes.”
Middle Age
It is also called Dark Age. The fall of Rome led to the decline of trade and the economy in general
and decrease in the desire to travel , in this stage people delayed to travel due to the economic crisis,
despite of economic slump other groups were still travel mainly reasons were:
Religious Issues- in the middle world, many thousands of people traveled to sites of religious
importance such as the temple of Isis on Philae Island in Egypt and the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi
in Greece. Although the majority of these people travelled to these sites to worship and therefore
have often been labelled as “pilgrims”, seem to have engaged in activities that are more commonly

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associated with the modern day tourist. The majority of pilgrimage trips in Greece in the Middle Age
were made by individuals who for various reasons visited a particular holy sites.
Holiday – primarily for the upper and the middle classes to such places as Canterbury,
Winchester and Walsingham.
Trade related trips – the first people who left of their own will were merchants. Trips made for
commercial, that is, trading reasons have been long-established with some ancient travelers.
Both upper class and religious Pilgrimages encountered with the security and robbery impact
along the way were very common, so those made pilgrimage were very afraid to travel lonely. There
was need to have many tour guides so as to direct the visitors who are not familiar to across the
borders Tour Guides were in a good hope and were paid an awesome wages in this stage.
According to Cosson, on the historian said “a guide was paid a large fee because he is not only
led the way but also generated safe to the travelers”, eventually, tour guide begun to be suitable and
acceptable job.

Tour Guide with the Group

The Renaissance and The Grand Tour
The beginning of the Middle Age that would eventually lead to the period known as the
Renaissance. The perspective of tour guide was very much consolidated during this stage. It was
this period that people of the upper classes traveled from Britain on the Grand Tour. The image of
tour guide developed tremendously among the cities.
The fragmented feudal society of the Middle age was transformed into one increasingly
dominated by central political institutions had an urban and commercial economy and had lay
patronage of education, the arts and music.
Security was a major challenge yet as it was for travelers during the Middle Ages, some of tour
guides also failed to accomplish their expectation. They also worry against robberies on the journey
while they were impressed with job.
 TM-6362 PROFESSIONAL ELECTIVE 3 – TOUR GUIDING
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THE HISTORY OF TOUR GUIDING

Upper class people hired guides in travelling at the other destination. It is believed that they
wanted to be safe and to be controlled by tour guide against any dangerous factors that might threat
the visitors.

The tour guides at this period had the role to show the travelers the changes occurred since
Middle Age based on architectural and urbanization.

Modern Age

In 17th to 18th century, most of travelers who traveled within the New World were explorers
rather than leisure. The first travelers were ordinary often Indigent explorers who traveled a lot to
seek a new life, to travel from the origin land was very much practiced finding other inhabitant. This
influenced by trading activities and seeking for conductive life condition. Ultimately, escaping from
the original land was very common. But there were some limitations hindered others to travel these
are:
 Long distance
 Time
 Inadequate of money
 Transportation network

Some scholars like Charles Dickens and Alexis their objectives were to explore the country and
write about the country they visited therefore, tour guide profession started to be well recognized
worldwide.
In conclusion: Although from the perspective of today’s tourism it seems that the ancient period,
Middle and Grand period were not appeared to be “the most appropriate time to consider the
emergence of tourism” (Vukonic, 2012.), it gave birth to the trips and tour guide motivated engaging
in the field, the development of tour guide was not revolution process, it is evolution since An
ancient time, Middle, Renaissance and Modern time with the great role of Thomas Cook, the role of
Thomas Cook in the evolution of Tour Guide should not underestimated.

References and Supplementary Materials

Online Supplementary Reading Materials
1. Techniques in Tour Guiding 2018;
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/pauliuslaiminga/techniques-in-tour-guiding-
2018-by-paul-olola; October 02, 2019

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