A tourist guide simply has to be fit
During the last six months, European tourism has been on a corona break. Consequently, I have mostly been working on a computer. The few first groups after a long time reminded me, how important it is for a tourist guide to be in good shape!
The tourist guide’s work is extremely multitasking
A tourist guide sometimes has to walk and talk for hours. He or she also has to be sympathetic, knowledgeable, responsible, organized, funny, professional etc. On a full day tour, a guide often has to keep an eye on the schedule and motivate the guests to stick with the schedule – but without being intrusive.
And the guests expectations in confront of a tourist guide are often high. Very high! I haven’t found a better example of this as the following: on a video during a terrorist attack in North Africa, one can hear a guest saying: “Where is the guide? What are we supposed to do now?”
Sports lifestyle
In order to remain competitive as a tourist guide, one simply has to be fit – there is no way around it. My professor of psychology on the Faculty of tourism studies – Turistica (Portorož, Slovenia) used to say, that all jobs in the tourism sector are demanding and that a professional has to lead a sports lifestyle, in order to keep with the rhythms of hospitality.
A sports lifestyle means a lot of physical exercise – whenever possible. Walking, running, cycling, swimming, dancing – there is a lot of choice. A sport lifestyle means a healthy, balanced diet. It also means constant education and a big emphasis on good human relationships.
The good news
If one starts to practice a sports lifestyle on a day-to-day basis, with time, things get easier. When one is in good shape and committed to his/hers work, challenges become fun. Hard work becomes play. And guests notice it, appreciate it and reward it.
So dear colleague – also if you have a busy schedule, there are opportunities for exercise every day. As cliché as it can sound, it works: sometimes it is better to take the bike than the car, or the stairs instead of the elevator. Housekeeping duties can also be turned into exercise. And off course try not to entirely fill the stomach, when eating.
Some publicity for Slovenia
In Slovenia, where I come from, many people practice some form of recreation. We are lucky, because the country offers many beautiful landscapes. And sport has a very good reputation – I found out, with years passing, that it is not like that everywhere around the world.
Our athletes, then, do not finish surprising us. The most recent miracle is the second consecutive victory of Tadej Pogačar – Pogi on the Tour de France. The Tour de France! I am really curious to see, how the Slovenian team is going to perform on the Olympics these days.
If you will ever need some information about where and what to do in Slovenia in terms of exercise and recreation, feel free to contact us.
