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Module 1

Guides have played an important role throughout history in helping travelers. In ancient times, guides were important for organized travel and were known as pathfinders. During the Middle Ages, most pilgrimages required guides for protection. The role of guides improved during the Renaissance and Grand Tours of the 17th-18th centuries when they served as personal tutors. Thomas Cook is considered the first travel agent and tour operator in the 19th century, establishing packaged tours and training guides to support his growing tourism business.

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Eve Fajardo
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377 views

Module 1

Guides have played an important role throughout history in helping travelers. In ancient times, guides were important for organized travel and were known as pathfinders. During the Middle Ages, most pilgrimages required guides for protection. The role of guides improved during the Renaissance and Grand Tours of the 17th-18th centuries when they served as personal tutors. Thomas Cook is considered the first travel agent and tour operator in the 19th century, establishing packaged tours and training guides to support his growing tourism business.

Uploaded by

Eve Fajardo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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[TM-6362 Professional Elective 3- Tour Guiding]

1
[Week 1: Introduction in Tour Guiding]

Module 001: Origins, History and Evolution in


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. Discuss the contributions made by Thomas Cook to Tour Guiding

Guides are tourism professionals that lead their guests through the most interesting parts of their
region. It is their task to entertain visitors to their region and to help them to interpret the sights that
they are visiting. They help the tourists to have a positive experience and take care of their guests as good
as they can. This subject teaches you on how to become such a professional guide and shows you how to
develop the skills and relevant information that you will need to work as a guide.

Guiding is one of the oldest professions in the world, there are plenty of specific references to
guides in the annals of history in different ages of time postulating the evolution of guiding which include
the following:

Ancient Empire
 This era of the great empires from 3000 BC to 500 AD.
 Ancient Persians, Assyrians and Egyptians traveled in organized manner.
 During the era of the Greek Empire, travel flourished thus increasing the number of guides.
 Guides were referred to as pathfinder, leader and explainer using the Greek terms “periegetai” or
“exegetai” and “proxemos” whose functions was to help fellow citizens travelling abroad.

Middle Age
 The period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance also referred to as the Dark Age.
 This was the period that saw the prevalence of religious pilgrimages. Encounters with robbers
were common during the pilgrimages with most pilgrimages with most pilgrims afraid to travel
alone.
 References to guides during this period emphasizes on their roles as pathfinders, protectors, safety
escorts and bridges to ensure safe passage.
 According to historian Casson, a guide was paid large fee for not only leading the way, but also
generating safe-conduct to travelers.

Renaissance and Grand Tour


Course Module
 The image of Tour Guides was improved significantly during the Renaissance and the Grand Tour.
 Young men of the upper classes traveled from Britain using a prescribed route from England
through France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to their final destination Italy.
 The Grand Tourist was expected to return from his travel with a broadened mind, good command
of foreign languages, self-reliance, a highly developed taste and graceful manner.
 Since the journeys were for educational and cultural reasons, the individuals or groups were
usually assigned personal tutors.
 The tutor (Bear Leader, Antiquarii and Cicerone) would remain with the traveler and his entourage
throughout the journey.
 Many tutors and guides during this period were distinguished clergy, students, teachers, writers and
historians.
 Plenty of references are made during the Renaissance of British and European royalties and rich
individuals hiring guides.
 According to British writer Francis Bacon, he appointed out to the need of a personal guide or
courier when travelling especially one who has a linguist and who knows the right people to meet
and proper thing to do.

Modern Age
 During the 17th and 18th century, travelers to and within the new world were explorers rather
than pleasure travelers.
 The first travelers were ordinary and often indigent explorers who traveled a lot to find a new way
of life.
 Few new world travelers and guides are known to have existed during this period.
 Due to the great distance and limitations of transportation, time and money, pleasure travel to and
from the new world was undertaken by a few privileged and curious Europeans.
 Three renowned European writers who made visits to the new world during this period include
Charles Dickens, Francis Trollope and Alexis de Tocqueville who travelled widely and wrote
comprehensive accounts of their travels mentioning some of their guides.

Sir Thomas Cook


 It is without underestimation of the role played by Sir Thomas Cook after the 2nd World War that
provided the impetus for development of the modern tour guiding as we know it today.
 Thomas Cook is considered as the first travel agent as he transported 570 passengers on a round
trip train excursion as the first rail excursion agent,
 He became the first tour operator in the world after diversifying his full time excursion agency to
offer packaged tours to the growing travelers.
 Cook organized intracontinental and intercontinental tours around the world including the Grand
Tours of Europe, pilgrimage tours to Egypt among others.
 In 1851 Cook launched a newspaper called “The Excursionist” to educate travelers on the places of
interest in France, Germany, India, Australasia, America and Far East in the package tour.
 His son John Mason Cook later set up oversees editions of the newspaper and in May 1902 it was
renamed to “The Travelers Gazette”and continued being published until 1939.
 During the 20th century, Cook through his travel agency gave training to guides to support his
quality tours that were started in the second half of the nineteenth century, he provided travelers
with personalized tours which were escorted by a tour leader.
[TM-6362 Professional Elective 3- Tour Guiding]
3
[Week 1: Introduction in Tour Guiding]

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

Course Module

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