When a person hires a guide in a national park or other
place, or joins a free interpretative walk or something, they have certain
expectations whether they know it or not. Here are some pointers for doing a
good tour or walk.
1.
When it’s
time to meet your group at the appropriate location, take a few minute to
connect with people. Ask where they are from, smile or make eye contact, and
generally give the impression that you are happy to spend time with them.
2.
At the beginning, give an overview. Not a
lecture. Just explain: what is the purpose of your tour? What will we see? How
long will we be gone? Will there be free time for taking photos or journaling?
Are we going to go to one place and then wait for something to happen? Etc.
3.
Make sure people are prepared (shoes, water,
rain gear, etc).
4.
Stop occasionally and show something
interesting. You can have a set number of planned stops on your tour, but also
take advantage of opportunities, like a bird flying overhead or a wildlife
sighting or an interesting plant that you come across. Remember that even if it is something that is
normal to you and you see it every day, it is probably new and exciting for
park visitors.
5.
Conclusion. At the end of the tour, re state the
overview but even more succinctly. Thank everyone and say goodbye.
This checklist helps the people in your group relax a little
bit and feel ready to learn. If they don’t understand the schedule or the
overall concept of the activity, they won’t have as positive an experience.
We did a field exercise with me as the tour guide and the
class as the tourists. Our first issue
was to identify who was coming the tour and what the message would we. We
decided that the message was about the conservation value of Crocodile Lake,
and our tourists were Vietnamese city dwellers, parents and children, who had
never visited the park before.
At the beginning, I asked everyone who they were and to tell
about themselves. The class instantly transformed from resource professionals
to married couples from Hanoi, families from Ho Chi Minh City, and single
parents with teenagers. I gave an over
view of the subject and how far we would walk (important information for people
with kids!) and we set out. I made 3 or
4 impromptu stops to look at plants and give some factual information, and then
we sat under some shade trees. We had to
warn some of the families in the group to not wander into the forest because of
wild gaur and the danger of getting lost.
People asked good tourist questions, like “is it safe to go
swimming even though there crocodiles here?” “Can we eat this kind of
crocodile?” and so on.
On the way back to the ranger station, the class members took turns being the tour guide. We emphasized that people are usually hoping for a combination of new knowledge and an emotional connection with nature or other people. I think it was a successful exercise and a few people suggested doing this training with some of the park tour guides. (The people in my class sometimes work as tour guides as part of their duties, but it isn’t their primary duty. Cat Tien has several staff who are primarily tour guides, but this is the peak tourist season so they couldn’t attend most of the training. I’ll try to schedule with them this upcoming week).
Cultural differences and giving tours
Basic manners are often different between Asian cultures and
western cultures. We talked about how in America, people expect you to make eye
contact or else they think that you don’t like them. However in Vietnam it
itsn’t really polite to make eye contact, especially with people you don’t
know. They would think you are creepy if
you make more than minimum eye contact Hugging new people is common in America,
but definitely not a good idea in Vietnam!
However in Vietnam it sounds like it is okay to pick up kids or squeeze
babies, but I would never touch a stranger’s baby at home. They would think I
was trying to steal their kid.
My suggestion was that although they shouldn’t do anything
that makes them truly uncomfortable, if they are giving a tour to western
visitors, it would be considered polite and friendly to make eye contact and
smile. This is not the local custom, but it would make the foreign visitors
feel more comfortable, and therefore more ready to learn.
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