How to Be an Award-Winning Tour Guide

About the Book

Whether you want to become a tour guide or are already working in the industry, How to Be an Award-Winning Tour Guide can help transform your guiding skills from basic to brilliant and open new doors to one of the world’s most exciting professions. Written by award-winning tour operators and tour guide trainers, this book is loaded with insight, personal experiences, industry knowledge, anecdotes, hints, humour, hands-on exercises and sound advice. With their combined 40 years’ experience in tourism and communications, the authors know how important a good tour guide is to delivering a quality visitor experience. Now they’re sharing their knowledge with you. How to Be an Award-Winning Tour Guide is essential reading for tour guides, tour operators, coach drivers, hoteliers, wholesalers, retailers, students, educators, employers, travel writers, tourism officials, visitor centre employees, venue managers or anyone involved in the tourism industry.

About the Author

JEREMY PERKS
Jeremy Perks is the main tour guide in the GLOBAL GYPSIES company; he’s also the, senior trainer, itinerary planner and operations manager. He’s a natural leader, excellent bushman, and great communicator.
Born in South Africa, Jeremy immigrated to Australia in 1996. In his youth, he was a teacher, an officer in South Africa’s elite armed forces and a qualified mechanic. He also helped establish and manage a highly successful advertising agency with over 500 staff in Johannesburg. He later opened a branch office of the agency in Kenya but then turned his back on the corporate world to get back to nature.
He sold his shares and went to run a safari camp near Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s magnificent Rift Valley – if you’ve seen a photograph of pink flamingos in Africa, it was probably taken near there. Tour guiding is now Jeremy’s life and his passion.
Jeremy’s natural aptitude combined with his life experiences have given him all the special skills required to become an award-winning guide. A jack of all trades and master of many, Jeremy tried lots of jobs, but none of them felt quite right until he discovered guiding.

JAN BARRIE
Jan Barrie is responsible for the administration and marketing aspects of GLOBAL GYPSIES. Born in the UK, she immigrated to the USA with her parents where she studied journalism. She later worked in various customer-focused jobs in hospitality, sales and public relations.
Then came a decade of solo travels through Europe and Australia. After working in Melbourne and on several islands on the Great Barrier Reef, she settled in Perth, Western Australia, one of the most remote and beautiful capital cities in the world.
For several years, she was a successful public relations manager in both the private and public sectors, but then the travel bug hit again. In the early 90s, she went to live and work in Kenya where she was employed by a large advertising agency to establish a PR division and was also invited to become the travel writer for the country’s daily newspaper.
Fate stepped in when Jan and Jeremy met up in Nairobi. The attraction was instant and mutual. After spending a year together, they decided to quit their jobs and travel overland through Eastern and Southern Africa as a photojournalist team. Because they were contributing articles to several international newspapers and magazines, they were invited to stay at dozens of wonderful safari camps, hotels and lodges.
They experienced such unforgettable activities as walking with elephants, transporting rhinos by helicopter, trekking to find gorillas, white-water rafting and riding in hot-air balloons. They saw the best and the worst of the tourism industry from front-of-house to behind-the-scenes, met some incredible people, and shared – and wrote about – some exciting and often hair-raising experiences!
When the funds ran out and their idyllic on-the-road lifestyle was no longer sustainable, the couple decided to return to civilisation. Jeremy applied for Australian residency and when it was granted, they came to Perth. While travelling, they had often spoken of starting their own travel company. Within weeks of arriving in Western Australia, they registered the Global Gypsies name and started planning their first tour.
Twenty years later, the company has run hundreds of successful tours to the Australian Outback and to such exotic overseas destinations as Antarctica, Borneo, Botswana, China, India, Kenya, Peru, Silk Road, Vietnam and more; delivered dozens of training courses in tour guiding, four-wheel-driving and towing; built an extensive and loyal customer base; won several prestigious tourism awards and published the highly acclaimed book, How to be an Award-Winning Tour Guide.