Certified Tourist guide

Do you enjoy walking around the city, visiting museums, and meeting new people?

Do you like to share your knowledge about places and historic buildings and sites?

Are you passionate about the tourism industry? Do you speak other languages besides Swedish?

If you have answered YES to these questions, this Certified Tourist Guide vocational education as is perfect for you!

Tourist guides offer visitors a friendly welcome to a particular place in an informative and entertaining manner about its cultural and natural heritage. Tourist guides must be prepared to answer questions from visitors, ranging from a specific topic of interest to a general historical question, and are as well responsible for the safety of visitors during guided tours. Tourist guides are experts in delivering practical information of destinations, assisting with reading maps, providing directions, and recommending local foods or other tourist attractions to enjoy while visiting a place.

Certified Tourist Guide is a vocational complete training that prepares you to work as a tourist guide for a company and as a self-employed, providing you with the tools to start with your own tourist guide business. This education also includes heritage interpretation, a feature lacking in other similar educations. After completing the course, you are ready to offer a group of visitors an informative and entertaining guided tour in a knowledgeable, friendly, inspiring, ethical, sustainable, and safe manner, with the goal of delivering a positive experience and a lasting memory to the visitor participating in your guided tours!

Certified Tourist Guide vocational education consists of three modules with several Power Point video presentations and written handouts, providing you with the knowledge about the tourist guide profession in theory and practice. Each module has two exercises or tasks, and one examination assignment. The examination assignments are in written, Power Point, and video presentation forms. All modules must be passed to complete the course and be certified.

After completing the course, you will be able to:

• Acknowledge the fundamental notions of tourism and of tourist needs.

• Provide information, guide, and assist visitors with the help of communication tools and strategies.

• Guide from a fundamental understanding of the local, cultural, and natural heritage of a destination of choice.

• Guide in an adequate manner in accordance with current protocols regarding safety, and risk prevention.

• Handle unforeseen events in a solution-oriented manner.

• Design guided tours, and to start a tourist guide business to work independently as a tourist guide.

After completing the course, the student is expected to be able to independently offer a group of tourists an informative and entertaining visit in a certain area in a knowledgeable, friendly, ethical, sustainable, inspiring, and safe manner with the goal of providing the visitor with a positive experience and a lasting memory. 

All reading lists and other course material is prepared from a practical standpoint to give the student the tools to: 

·Communicate with and answer questions from visitors based on a specific object of interest: e.g. history, art, culture, society, politics, traditions, food, etc.

·Critically analyse what information is to be offered to clients during the guided tours and to create tailor-made solutions when needed.

·As a self-employed person or as an employee, design guided tours and create a suitable portfolio of different places to visit and of topics of interest.

·Obtain an understanding and knowledge of health and safety in connection with the guided tours/ visits. 

After completing the course, the student will: 

·Be able to inform visitors about the destination based on basic protocol rules.

·Be able to guide and assist tourists during their visits with the help of actual communication tools and strategies.

·Be able to guide visitors based on an understanding of the local cultural and natural heritage.

·Know about different art and cultural heritage, tell about local stories and inform about facts during the visit/ guided tour.

·Be able to guide in an adequate manner in accordance with current protocols regarding safety and based on knowledge of activities and to prevent risk factors.

·Be able to handle unforeseen events, complaints and solve related problems.

·Be able to start an own tourist guide business and to work independently as a tourist guide.

Syllabus

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MODULE 1

• INTRODUCTION TO TOURISM AND GUIDING
• Tourist guide profession
• Tourist behaviour
• Tourist typologies
• Definitions in tourism
• Tourism, travel & hospitality
• Tourist attractions
• Tourist destinations
• Tourism impacts
• Eco-sustainable tourism Sweden
• Tourist destination Sweden

MODULE 2

TOURIST GUIDING IN PRACTICE

• Work overview
• Guide assignments
• Information
• Information search & information sources
• Presentation of information
• Communication
• Communication applied to the tourist guide profession
• Guide techniques
• Safety, security & risk prevention
• Heritage
• Heritage interpretation
• Heritage interpretation process
• Storytelling
• The tourist guide as heritage interpreter
• Preparing for heritage interpretation talks

MODULE 3

TO BE A TOURIST GUIDE AND ENTREPRENEUR

• Guided tours
• Market research
• Marketing research
• Business development & strategies
• Production of tourist guide products and services