Where have you had
your worst experience with a local guide?
Some responses:
The guide was actually very good, but the walk was plant by
plant and quite boring
A 10-year old kid who knew little beyond the obvious and seemed
a bit bored, and you really had to pull any information out
of him beyond fairly meaningless names of places. Not unfriendly,
but not really appropriate as guide.
Every conversation, comment and action had a sexual undertone
that was repulsive.
We were herded like stupid cows.
We became very irritated when he marched us through a beautiful
part of the forest without saying a word and took us to a lake
as fast as he could.
The local guide took for granted that we all spoke perfect Spanish
(we did not) and didn't warn us about the dangers of currents
between the cenote and the sea. I got into serious trouble and
was swept onto urchin-covered rocks where I was battered quite
seriously by the waves. The guide was out to sea and made no
effort to come help me, thankfully my husband swam out to help
me!
On a scale of 1-5 (1 being the least, 5 being the most) please
rate your interest in the following activities.
We asked respondents to rate their interest in activities
including specific and general nature, physical and intangible
culture, folk art, food, adventure travel and community contact.
The result shows an interesting shared first spot tied by "General
nature: Scenery, relaxing, exercise" and "Community
contact" showing that the respondents have an equal interest
in nature and the people living within these natural
surroundings with an average of 4.2 out of 5.
That there are many real nature enthusiasts is shown by the
3rd place with 4.1: "Specific nature: learning about species
and biodiversity (example: bird watching)"
The other options are all clearly a bit behind, yet bunched
together at a surprisingly tight range and still have a reasonably
high average (3.6 to 3.8). The implication of this for communities
is that they should all be given some thought as well to decide
on their relevance for the specific place.
Language Skills Multiple Choice
This was a complicated question to formulate from the first
moment and results need to be interpreted on a world-wide level
and the survey was after all in English. What is interesting
though is that 40% said that English is always important to
them, and an additional 31% replied that it is important in
a specialist tour.
The implication for community guides is that they might be loosing
visitors by ignoring the demand for English guides, and the
option of learning extra languages should be considered. The
other languages were also mention as useful by some, so in countries
where there is contact with these languages they might be considered,
but in this English survey the relevance was low.
On a scale of 1-5 (1 being the least, 5 being the most) please
rate the level of importance you give the following skills in
a community guide:
All the replies received an average of over 4 out of 5, but
the clear leader with 4.7 is "local knowledge" –
this seems to be the most important added value that local guides
can offer their visitors. Other highly-rated skills were "enthusiasm
and friendliness" with 4.6 and "environmental awareness"
with 4.5.
"Attention to safety" and "good communication
skills" follow, both with 4.3 out of 5.
There seems to be a certain level of flexibility or tolerance
by some respondents to "punctuality " and "flexibility
to visitor needs" - but communities take note: this view
is certainly not shared by all since the average score is still
just over 4 out of 5.
And here are some additional comments about guides' skills:
Interpretation again, the ability to tell a story about a conservation
issue and inspire visitors to join in on the conservation effort
of the place they are visiting.
A good guide should always be ready with a Plan - B type of
option. And his/her knowledge about nature and local culture
should be complete enough to find connections and to improvise
interpretations.
Guides should be well trained and tuned to the needs of their
visitors as well as their community. communication skills are
of the utmost importance!
Environmental awareness need not be scientific but does need
to be go beyond information to concepts and big ideas. Punctuality
can be traded against flexibility to visitor needs. Local knowledge
is not as important as local perspective.
Local guides need more support to learn internationally recognized
species names. For example (in Mexico) not "lion"
but puma, not "tigre" but jaguar etc. This is even
more important when guiding with bird tours…
What do you find bothersome in a rural guide?
We asked respondents to rank how much they would be bothered
by specific behaviors. Some respondents pointed out that ranking
from first to last made this a difficult question as most of
these factors are important. We confess that this was part of
the idea – as these most probable answers were selected
from a much longer list by a lengthy test phase with the help
of a variety of interested test-run volunteers. The idea was
to force respondents to think in more detail which is the relative
importance of each one.
The result was a near draw for first place of three answers
averaging just over 4 again showing the importance of the local
perspective and a combination of human and nature issues:
"Under the influence of alcohol" (though some commented
that this would depend on the level of alcohol)
"Disinterest in local community and surroundings"
"Insensitive to nature"
These three were clearly well above the other options, who
in order of importance (ie. level of bothersome) were:
"Lack of local knowledge" (in a clear 4th spot)
"Whining/complaining"
"Reluctance to walk"
Conclusions and proposals for follow-up work
What do visitors want from local guides? We heard a number
of specific suggestions about what is and what is not desired.
That said, it is interesting to note that several of the same
places appear in the "best" and "worst"
lists. What this means for communities is that praise and criticism
need to be taken in equal measure. Improving guide service and
insuring consistency will be key in keeping places on the map.
On a side note, the good news is that more participants answered
the "best" experience than the number of "worst"
experiences.
Respondents said that what they want from a guide is a certain
level of confidence and that basic security measures are in
place. What was valued across the board were the value of engaged
and responsible contact with nature and communities. Highly
valued are direct and honest answers to questions asked by visitors.
Travelers also want guides who ... want to be guides. Said one:
"If the guide doesn't want to be there, then neither will
the client."
This survey was answered by 42 respondents. Recommendations
for follow-up work include asking travelers visiting specific
locales what they expect and how they perceive particular places.
In addition, this survey can be turned on its head and guides
should be asked what they expect from visitors. We will be implementing
such a pilot project in several communities in Mexico in 2007.
Results will be published on Planeta.com.
Kudos
For suggestions, many thanks to Marie Gautier, Esther Clauss,
Carlos Ortega, Martin Buttner, Gabriela Ramirez, Johan Rohwer,
Marianne Heredge, Tim Burford and Kathleen Dowd-Gailey.
For assistance promoting the survey, many thanks to ECOCLUB,
Mountain Forum,
Development
Gateway and green-travel.
REFERENCES
Guides
Community
Tourism
Rural
Tourism
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