1. Meet their clients at the airport, accompany them to the hotel, assign rooms, deal with missing luggage, and manage all aspects of meals and transportation during the tour.
2. Explain the itinerary and schedule, and make sure everyone in the party is where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there.
3. Handle health emergencies and manage last minute changes and conflicts.
4. Keeping each member of the group happy and interest them in signing up for another tour with the company.
5. Manage the budget and prepare reports.

1. Do you speak several languages fluently?
2. Have you lived in the area for a long time?
3. Do you have experience in specific topic-- such as baking, wine tasting, herb gardens, or architecture that tour companies may be looking for?
4. Have you done research or published articles on the topic of a potential tour? Tour companies like to be able to publish the credentials of their tour guides.
5. Do you have teaching or corporate training experience that demonstrates your ability to convey information?
6. Customer service experience will also be helpful.

1. If you think you might like to become a tour guide, investigate opportunities close to home first, to see if the field is a good fit for you. Contact your local city or state's tourist board to identify local organizations that may be looking for volunteer tour guides.
2. After you've established that you are seriously interested in becoming a tour guide, you should prepare a resume, and identify tour companies that you would like to work for. The United States Tour Operators Association has a database of member organizations you can use to find potential employers.

Now that you have been introduced to the career of tour guide, you can continue your research further if it interests you by doing further reading, exploring additional education and training, watching videos, talking to people etc. Before investing in this idea further, as with all career choices, it would be prudent to search for current job ads in this area to determine what qualifications, experience, job functions and other requirements are being asked for in this career and how available job opportunities are so that you can get a sense of real possibilities.