Do You Want to Get Paid to Travel? Here’s What You Should Know

Travel may be expensive for most people, but there are jobs where you get paid to travel instead of paying. Travel and tour management careers give you a chance to travel to foreign countries and exotic destinations – and get paid to do it. If you enjoy travel and adventure, there are many jobs within the travel and tourism industry that might fit your interests – but are they the right jobs for you? These questions can help you decide if a job where you get paid to travel is a good fit for you.

Do You Love to Travel?

Most people think that tour guides jobs are ideal for people who love to travel, but there are other traits that are far more important. Travel guides and adventure guides are there for their guests, not for themselves. You won’t have a lot of time for yourself, and you will probably be visiting the same places week after week after week. In fact, in some travel careers, you’ll basically be making your home in another city and guiding others around it.

So What Traits Do You Need?

The most important trait for travel guides is being good with people, because you’ll be dealing with people all the time. In addition, it’s a real bonus if you have a real interest in learning the history and cultures of various cities and areas of the world.

Are There Any Qualifications for Tour Guides Jobs?

You may need a license to lead tours in some cities, but there’s no formal course of study for tour guide jobs and training is mostly on the job. A relevant degree may help you land a job, but in most cases, it’s more important to know your way around the travel and tourism industry. There are a number of companies that offer travel training that can help you find travel guides or adventure guides jobs.

What Skills Are Important for Tour Guides to Know?

Besides people skills, there are a few other important skills to know and things you should know how to do.

Logistics

There are a lot of aspects involved in planning tours for a group of people. While tour guides don’t usually do the planning and make the contacts, they do have to keep track of all the details and know where everyone – and their luggage and supplies – are supposed to be once the tour group gets on the road.

A Cool Head in an Emergency

From lost wallets to tour bus accidents, just about anything can happen on a tour. When emergencies occur, the tour guides need to know how to deal with them. If you can keep your head when dealing with unexpected events, you may do well in travel careers.

In addition, tour guides need to be energetic, hard-working and quick to learn about new cities and cultures. If you possess these traits, a tour guides job or another job where you get paid to travel might be a great choice for you.

Get Paid to Travel with a Tour Guide

Every day, thousands of people get paid to travel to exotic destinations and share their love of foreign lands with other people young and old. They work in travel careers, doing jobs as tour guides, travel tour directors, tour managers, adventure guides, tour directors and other jobs in travel and tour management. If you want to get paid to travel in tour guide jobs and training for travel jobfad interests you, there aren’t a lot of options out there.

In fact, while many schools offer education in the hospitality industry, travel training is a lot harder to come by. Most people in travel careers get their training the old-fashioned way – they learn it on the job. If you’re interested in getting paid to travel, though, there is another way to learn the ropes and get a leg up on the fierce competition for open positions in travel and tour management. That route is to educate yourself and learn how to become a tour director, tour manager of adventure guide from someone who has come up in the business the hard way, through years of hard work in the tour and travel industry.

What You Need to Know to Get Paid to Travel

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most jobs as tour guides only require a high school education, but the reality is that your diploma is a minimum requirement. A solid understanding of the industry – as well as knowing where to look for tour guides and tour manager jobs – gives you a serious advantage over the competition for jobs where you get paid to travel.

Among the things you need to know if you want to get paid to travel are:

-          How to present yourself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy travel guide

-          What kinds of companies hire tour managers, tour guides and tour directors

-          Where to look for jobs in the travel industry

-          How to make your personality pay off for you in your job hunt

-          How to talk knowledgeably about other countries and cultures

In addition, if you want to work in tour guide jobs in foreign countries, you should be able to demonstrate your knowledge of the country and the culture. It helps if you have a good command of the language or can pick up on other languages quickly.

The more you know about the travel and tourism industry, the easier it will be to get a job where you get paid to travel. Take the time to educate yourself about the travel careers you’d like to live and you’ll be living your dream of paid travel before you know it.