Photo. Ibrahim
from Jordan - a top guide associated with Jordan Beauty Tours in Jordan (
www.jordanbeauty.com). He is a Bedouin
and take adventure travellers into the hot desert where the Bedouins live. Here
you can experience their unique lifestyle and culture. Ibrahim know the areas as
his own pocket, so he can also take you safely to secret trails, ancient wonders
and show you amazing
nature.
Ambitious tour operators are continually striving to
improve their tours and clients (travellers) service. So feedback from
travellers is highly valuable to make them aware of areas that they need to
improve on.
Some tour operators have feedback schemes, Guest Books and Forums, so their
travellers can send greetings, or even more seriously: give useful feedback,
evaluate tours and share comments and criticisms they may have about managers,
itineraries, accommodations, transportation, sales team and pre-departure
information or any areas they think the tour operators should improve on. The
feedback is meant to add experience and skills to tour operators and give them
valuable insight into the travellers wishes and interests.
Based on my active travelling for almost 20 years, I have used travel guides
on adventure tours and expeditions. Thanks to all these guides my tours have
been quite successful.
| Photo. Three top local guides in Tanzania. Victor, Marc
(expedition leader) and Beatuce take adventure travellers to the top of
Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. |
 |
Based on my experiences I will hereby present a general list with criteria for considering and
evaluating travel guides for adventure and expedition tours (se example of
evaluation questionnaire below - feedback scheme):
Criteria:
1. Local knowledge.
2. Relevant language
skills.
3. Knowledge about the main topic for the tour, example tribe
people, ancient sites, nature, animals etc.
4. Safety: taking necessary
precautions: aid equipment, food etc. and knowledge about first aid
5. Experience in using photo camera and video camera
6. Good
communication skills, both regarding the travel company (clients) and people who
meeting on the way
7. Ability to deal with unexpected situations, take
decisions and be creative in the best way
8. Capable of motivating
travellers and use sense of humour.
Ranging:
1. Excellent
2. Very
good
3. Fair
4. Poor
Personal comments and suggestions:
.
These criteria can also be used by travellers for considering alternative
travel guides in advance before they book the tour.
The importance of the mentioned criteria will vary from tour to tour. Not
just focus on the price. Ask first and foremost for guide`s competence profile
so you can consider how he or she match your expections. This will of course
also affects how much you are willing to pay.
|
Photo.
Oddbjørn (Oddbjorn) from the Norwegian tour operator Hvitserk (www.hvitserk.no) is an excellent
tour guide. He impressed me very much during my tour to Kilimanjaro
in 2003.
|
 |
Your opportunity for achieving a fully alive and unique experience could be
realised by finding a tour operator who fits your expectations, and so you can
explore the world in way you never could before. It should make your journey
more interesting and exciting when you are experiencing it assisted by a well
qualified guide.
|
Photo. Two top guides from Pars Tourist
Agency/Operator www.key2persia.com
in Iran, Ali and Amir, father and son.
These two take adventure travellers up to wild
mountains in Iran where the nomads live, and so the action starts. Ali is just incredible (at left side
on the photo). |
 |
Make sure in advance that you will be travel with a guide who is a
specialist in the topic your are interested in, for example a person who is
expert about indigenous people, anthropology, archaeology, biology, history,
nature and in other areas. Their knowledge about the topic, destination,
contacts and personality should make them able to enrich your journey
immeasurably compared with travel alone.
Stein Morten Lund, 29 July 2005
Additional information
Read also our article about general criteria
for tour operators arranging adventure and expedition tours.
- How to
find the right tour operator?
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