What does a tour guide do?

Tour guide is an art, and art has its own style and genre. Art has both inheritance and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the types of tour guides, the style of tour guides' explanation, many factors affecting the formation of tour guides' explanation style and several stages of the formation and development of tour guides' explanation style.

I. Overview of types and styles of tour guides

As a profession, tour guide has been widely accepted by people and has become one of the jobs that young people yearn for, but this is only in the last 20 years. The tour guides came into being at the same time as the tourism industry in China, and grew rapidly with the development of the tourism industry. Except the Chinese Dictionary, other dictionaries, encyclopedias and even dictionaries do not list the definition of tour guide, which may just show that tour guide is a young profession, a young discipline and a new art that needs people's attention, discussion and research. Tour guide, euide, is a guide, which means a person who accompanies others and guides others, from which we can trace back to the origin of tour guide. The meaning of Chinese is relatively clear: guide others to travel. The tour guide is one of the six elements of modern tourism: eating, living, traveling, traveling, shopping and entertainment. He should not only make proper arrangements for tourists' diet, accommodation and transportation, but also make them feel satisfied with their visit and buy suitable goods. His work covers the whole process of tourism from beginning to end, connecting every link of tourism and grasping every detail of tourism services: rooms, restaurants, motorcades, motorcades, scenic spots, shops, bars, airports, stations, posts and telecommunications, insurance, hospitals and so on.

Tour guide work includes two parts: service and explanation. Tour guide service is skill, and tour guide explanation is art. As a skill, there are differences between thoughtfulness and carelessness, and between seriousness and perfunctory. As an art, there are different levels and styles. The personality charm of tour guides is formed in the interweaving of this skill and art. Because of the differences in personality, age, knowledge, work attitude and work object, they can be divided into three categories: cultural, service-oriented and relaxed. According to the questionnaire survey of 100 tour guides, 100% of tour guides think that tour guides have different styles and types, 50% describe themselves as service-oriented, 25% are relaxed, 18% are cultural, and the rest are service-oriented and cultural or both.

(1) Service-oriented tour guide: Tour guides skillfully use their professional knowledge and skills to organize and arrange sightseeing for tourists. They are especially good at coordinating the relationship with related tourism enterprises on behalf of travel agencies, treating tourists with sincere and enthusiastic attitude, and dealing with problems in the process of tourism, so as to establish the only familiar, sincere and reliable image of tourist destinations in front of tourists. Serving tourists is the most basic and important purpose of tour guides. Therefore, among tour guides, service accounts for half. Even other tour guides with obvious personality characteristics, as long as they are really excellent tour guides, must also have the characteristics of "service".

(2) Easy Tour Guides Most of these tour guides are young, lively and cheerful, and some are good at singing and dancing, imitating and being good at humor; Some have a skill and some have a skill. Especially the car is the best place for them to play their special skills. They are often more "smart" and win frequent laughter and applause from tourists. Knowing each other, mastering the sense of humor and jokes, being relaxed and not superficial, and being lively and oily are the secrets of success. However, a small number of them are often satisfied with seeing off a group of guests with ease and pleasure, ignoring the improvement of their own tour guide level.

(3) Cultural tour guides

Tourists who are good at explaining, like to analyze, compare and summarize, and like to listen to introductions and ask questions are the characteristics of cultural guides.

Tourists' questions often lead them. A simple question: "Why are there no flowers in Suzhou gardens?" Many tour guides use the phrase "Suzhou gardens never have flowers" to prevaricate. But for cultural tour guides, it may lead to a lot of thinking and comparison, and finally explain the differences between Chinese and western gardens due to many differences in thinking mode, painting concept, philosophical spirit and aesthetic concept.

Japanese tourists, influenced by their own culture, find the lotus flowers in Suzhou gardens or the plaques and couplets engraved with lotus flowers incredible, and often ask questions about it. Careless tour guides often perfunctory things with words like "Lotus has been planted like this since ancient times" or "The owner likes lotus", while cultural tour guides talk about the feudal literati's interest in lotus life from the quality of lotus itself, and then guide guests to get rid of the influence of their traditional culture and enter the artistic conception of beautiful lotus in China.

Cultural guides can observe words and deeds, pay more attention to tourists' habits and hobbies, grasp the distance between the country where tourists live and China due to social and historical differences and national cultural psychology, and be good at narrowing the distance in explanation. A tour guide who has a lot of knowledge, knows how to express, but doesn't care about tourists' reaction, or knows "in-depth" but is not good at "simple" is a bookish scholar, but not an excellent tour guide.

In addition to the above three kinds, there is another kind of tour guide which we temporarily call shopping guide. Their main energy is not spent on improving the professional level of tour guides, but on the serious study of shopping guide skills, so they often gain a lot and know little about tour guide business. This kind of tour guide belongs to the discussion of professional ethics, which is not discussed in this paper.

As far as tour guide is concerned, it is an art, and the so-called art refers to creative ways and means. Tour guides must compile different tour guide words according to the different needs of different tour guide objects, namely scenic spots, tourists and different tourists. This objectively shows the artistry and creativity of tour guide work. This kind of creativity not only has obvious personality color, but also has strong pertinence, which not only conforms to the personality of tour guides but also meets the needs of tourists, forming a tour guide style. Like other art forms, art with similar styles due to people and places will form art schools, and there are also schools of tour guide art.

1. Broad Sky Story School

Due to the similar cultural background, the same religious belief and the similar way of thinking, Southeast Asian tourists at a considerable level like the beautiful stories and legends of China, and there is a historical anecdote and folklore behind all the cultural landscapes. Every stone, every stone carving can tell an interesting story, so history and fiction, science and superstition, truth and fiction are wonderfully intertwined, some are beautiful, and some are absurd, which brings a little relaxation to tourists who are relaxing, and also gives them something to talk about after dinner. Southeast Asian tourists and domestic tourists usually like this style of explanation.

2. The literary genre of speaking like a book

Bookmarks, plaques and couplets are historical records and landscape interpretations. Tour guides can not only deduce many stories, but also explain themselves. It's easy to tell a story, but it sounds easy. Explaining the literal meaning is often boring, but a proper paragraph will give people a wonderful feeling that can only be understood but not expressed.

Xiangzhou, in the middle of Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden, is an original boat integrating the beauty of bridges, terraces, pavilions and buildings, with both concrete imitation and abstract integration. In the face of examples, this paper introduces China's aesthetic view of human beauty between similarity and dissimilarity and its implicit and abstract expression, and explains the meaning of "waiting for frost" pavilion on the top of the mountain not far away and "temple spring shift" in the west of Wang Shi Garden. The meaning of Chinese characters is stripped layer by layer, revealing the core of thinking and philosophy, thus showing the literary spirit and cultural spirit of China people. Western European tourists and domestic tourists with higher education level like this kind of introduction. But it is not easy to master the skills, and it is very difficult to really understand them in simple terms.

3. JUNG WOO Yuan Qiang Broadcasting School

With the development and maturity of tourism, the professional level of tour guide practitioners has improved rapidly, and a large number of graduates majoring in tourism have joined the tour guide team. They have received professional training, have a certain level of tour guides and foreign languages, are studious and savvy, and have mastered good pronunciation, intonation and speaking speed when explaining. Ready-made tour guide materials and speeches have enabled them to quickly enter the role and become a broadcasting school full of sounds and feelings and clear pronunciation. Their greatest feature is that they not only spread the beauty of scenic spots to tourists, but also convey the beauty of language, which is a perfect combination of "colorful".

Second, the external factors that form the tour guide style. A tour guide is the intermediary between tourists and tourist landscapes. Through the tour guide, introduce the landscape to the tourists, guide the tourists through the tour guide route, and explain through the tour guide, let the tourists experience what the visual intuition can't see.

Therefore, there are two external factors that affect the formation of tour guide style: one is the tourist landscape, and the other is the tourists.

Silvio, an Italian tour guide who has been to China for dozens of times, once said: "Beijing, Xi 'an, Suzhou and other cities must have good tour guides, because these cities are difficult cities; Other cities are more convenient. "

He divided tourist cities into "difficult" and "easy". In fact, from the perspective of foreigners, he expressed his intuitive feelings about the cultural connotation of tourist attractions.

Landscape and modern human landscape usually require tour guides to complete the first step (overview) and the second step (route guidance), so it is relatively easy. Visitors strolling along the Bund in Shanghai can use their own eyes to capture the beauty of the riverside and the brilliance of the lanterns, feel the leisure of the old people doing morning exercises with their own feelings, and understand the whispers of young people in love. Suzhou Taihu Lake, which is far away from the mountains and near the water, is full of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and catches shrimps with sails. It is superfluous to describe the harmony of nature and the hard work of farmers in too many languages. The historical and cultural landscape requires the tour guide to arouse the visual association of tourists in the shortest time and use the simplest language, so it is difficult to take tourists to time and space outside the intuitive vision.

Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle. In order to complete this difficult third step, tour guides need to understand the cultural background and psychology of tourists, look at China from the perspective of tourists and introduce China. Take European guests as an example. They come from an art kingdom composed of religion, architecture, sculpture and painting. The magnificent church, with epoch-making stone buildings, exquisite sculptures and breathtaking paintings completed by several generations and more than ten generations in hundreds of years, constitutes a tangible and emotional history. China's cultural and historical landscape and its environment have formed strong visual differences and a sense of distance. The former makes them feel novel, while the latter makes them feel puzzled. The eternal instinct of architecture drives them to ask habitually: "Is this floor original?" (Otiginal) ","Is this building original in the Ming Dynasty? If you simply answer, "No, it was repaired as it is. "Tourists will be disappointed. They don't want to come all the way to see the reconstructed thing, an antique fake. Here, the tour guide needs to make a simple comparison between China people's and westerners' understanding of architecture and nature from the cultural and psychological structure.

China people advocate "people everywhere, the land follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature". They never advocate long-term competition between man and nature, but conform to nature and maintain a harmonious relationship with nature, which is completely different from the European concept that architecture is eternal. In Europe, churches that have been built for hundreds of years can clearly see the differences in styles of different times. There are obvious differences in stone quality and style, and history is engraved on stone buildings. Europeans born in such an environment naturally attach great importance to every stone and wall. China's architecture follows the principle that water, wood, gold, fire and earth are born and can be used by the people, but they cannot be discarded. It is unlucky to build a house with stones other than five materials, so brick-wood structure has become the only architectural form in China for thousands of years. Objectively, it is difficult for brick and wood structures to last long, but conceptually, it is because China people "regard buildings as clothes and horses, sometimes they are replaced, but they will never suffer from the original for a long time, and they will never be broken without ambition." The representative buildings and churches in western Europe have created a space for people to talk with God, so the buildings are all directed at God, majestic and tall, and people feel small in them; In China, the idea of "harmony between man and nature" makes people close to the earth, embrace the earth and blend in with nature. The building did not develop to the heights, nor did it show mountains and rivers, but unfolded against the earth layer by layer. Therefore, in terms of the "shape" of the building or the garden itself, China's architecture can't be compared with western architecture. China people pursue meaning and rhyme instead of form, just like painting, drama and medicine. Europeans pursue vividness, science, concreteness, analysis and touch, while China pursues spirit likeness, freehand brushwork, abstraction and synthesis, which can only be understood but not touched. Combined with the calligraphy of Taihu Stone, Lishi Painting and Shutiao Stone in the garden, from three-dimensional to plane, from abstract to more abstract, this paper introduces the aesthetic interest of China people in writing "meaning" for thousands of years, as well as the world view behind freehand brushwork, so that European tourists will be awed by the mysterious philosophy and concept of an ancient nation, and will no longer be entangled in the specific age research of one stone and one tree.

In order to thoroughly explain this cultural concept, other "why does the roof bend upward?" "Why aren't the branches in the garden trimmed neatly?" "Why are there no flowers and no lawn in the garden?" "Does the private garden have a central axis?" "What are the functions of circular doors and leaky windows?" Wait a minute. This question is meaningful. Different from western tourists, Japanese and Southeast Asian guests have similar cultural traditions and cultural psychology with us. This sense of cultural identity makes them never have the above problems. They often ask, "Is this the layout at that time?" "Was it like this at that time?" Therefore, compared with western tourists, China gardens with different styles have many inherent characteristics and have their own understanding and cognition.

The cultural connotation of tourist attractions and the questions that tourists often ask tour guides affect the scope and depth of tour guides' explanations and have a strong guiding role. Of course, sometimes, this orientation is negative. Tourists often ask: "I heard that there are beautiful women in Suzhou. Is it true? " Therefore, the "textual research" of history, the analysis of soil and water, the study of heredity and all kinds of jokes occupy a considerable space for tour guides. Sometimes even if the guests don't ask, they will say it as a fixed explanation. Over time, it has almost become the style of some tour guides.

Third, the subjective factors of the formation of tour guide style

Style is people. Although scenic spots and tourists play an important guiding role in the formation of tour guide style, it is undoubtedly the subjective factors of tour guides, that is, cultural quality and personality characteristics that determine the formation of tour guide style.

A tour guide must first have a high cultural quality, so as to understand the cultural connotation of scenic spots from a certain breadth and depth, and compile beautiful and simple tour guide words according to the cultural level and hobbies of different tourists. Otherwise, no matter how high the cultural content of the scenic spots is, no matter how deep the questions raised by tourists are, and the cultural literacy of the tour guide itself is not enough, it is impossible to make a proper introduction and explanation.

Personality traits are often more obvious in tour guides than in other jobs. The job of a tour guide is to deal with people. Through the introduction of language and the cooperation of other services, the service for tourists is completed, which involves a wide range and has a long service process, thus giving the tour guide a strong subjectivity and randomness. This kind of subjectivity and randomness is an opportunity for all kinds of personalities to fully express themselves, whether they are subjective and decisive, casual and indecisive, cheerful and lively, practical with few words, humorous and natural, enthusiastic and outspoken, down-to-earth and sincere, or flashy and vain.

100 survey results of tour guides show that 60% think cultural quality is the primary factor, 30% think personality is the primary factor, and the rest 10% think it depends on tourists. "Scenic spots" and "others' influence" are both factors that affect the style of tour guides, but they are not the primary factors. How to improve the cultural quality of tour guides? Cultural quality covers a wide range, including not only professional knowledge, social knowledge, psychological knowledge, aesthetic knowledge, but also personal cultivation, moral cultivation, academic attitude and so on.

One-third of the questionnaires showed that their tour guides' speeches came from relevant books, while the vast majority of the remaining two-thirds thought that they came from the guidebook, and some of them wrote "others' influence" or "from the classroom".

In fact, a tour guide with style and personality, an experienced and enterprising tour guide, should read books and materials as widely as bees collect honey, make extensive contact with all kinds of tourists, and carefully brew their own honey flavor. Through your own learning experience, through your own sensory understanding, with the acceptance of tourists as the criterion, express it in your own easy-to-understand words, avoiding written language and obscure words. It should be said that people who don't know how to write tour guide words through their own feelings can't form their own tour guide style. In fact, it is not particularly difficult to develop strengths and avoid weaknesses, give play to their own strengths and advantages, and create their own style. Young girls dress appropriately and smile innocently when they are embarrassed, which can often cover up the lack of narrow knowledge; Humorous young people can save a lot of boring figures and rambling explanations with a joke and a witticism; Sending an umbrella in rainy days and adding a lock when running luggage can alleviate the dissatisfaction of many guests ... because the tour guide's explanation is not a class after all, and it is not a good tour guide to splash water on the guests or take a class with a straight face. Tour guide is a comprehensive art, unlike on the stage, which usually sets artistic standards, and the judges or audience score the actors from a distance under the stage. Tour guides have face-to-face contact, service, conversation and communication with tourists. Tourists come from different countries, have different cultural levels and social backgrounds, have different religious beliefs and hobbies, and are affected by climate, health, time, mood, environment and other factors at any time. Observing words and feelings is the basic principle of tour guides' explanation. Simply put, speaking just right is a good tour guide; It is a tour guide style that conforms to your own personality and meets the needs of guests.

Fourthly, the stage of the formation of tour guide style.

(A) learning to imitate

Reading the guidebook, reciting the tour guide words and joining the tour group with the old tour guide are compulsory courses for all tour guides in the first stage. Seriously, take the book to the scenic spot and recite it one by one, paragraph by paragraph, with some profound contents, or copy it without requiring a lot of understanding, or simply omit it, and at the same time laugh at yourself: "tourists don't like listening to these things." Only the water in Suzhou gardens can talk about many topics: "Water turns with mountains, and mountains are born of water". Water is the soul of the garden, which creates the space and reflection of the garden and creates a quiet and far-reaching artistic conception. Water contrasts with hills vertically, and in depth, due to the separation of bridges, it forms several levels, which increases the long-term sense of movement. "Watch the flowing water and the mountains" ... In short, water is an indispensable factor in Suzhou gardens, such as reality, movement, distance, competition and contrast between Yin and Yang. It is these contrasts that create the wonderful scenery of Suzhou gardens. Each of the above sentences can form a long tour guide. A new tour guide can't understand so much at once. Although it has been memorized, it is often not used at the scene. Because in addition to "the water turns with the mountains, and the mountains live with the water", it is impossible to germinate by saying one or two words in a dry manner, knowing one and not knowing the other. Since you can't say it well, don't say it. After many on-the-spot instructions and many visits to the garden, one day, when it was foggy and rainy, I suddenly found that the water in the distance came from several tributaries, flowing around the mountain and moving in front of my eyes. Suddenly, the words "water turns with the mountains, and the mountains live with the water" appeared. An inspiration, a little excitement, suddenly came into being. So the tour guide immediately added a vivid content to his speech. Perhaps it is another winter, when the bare branches stretch with vigor and strength, reflecting the black and branches like ink painting in the dark gray water, and the poem "A well with half a pool of autumn water" suddenly comes to mind. So when explaining this couplet, I have a little more personal feelings. It should be said that rote memorization and rote memorization in the initial stage, regardless of whether it was useful at that time, laid the foundation for gradual understanding, comprehension and mastery in the future. At this stage, tour guides "tell me what I know", try their best to promote what they have just learned, and have no time to pay attention to tourists' psychology, not to mention "tell you what you want to know". After long-term practice, in the various reactions of tourists, in their eyes of approval or doubt, tour guide words are chosen one by one. After the sudden inspiration of Awakening and the screening of tour guide speech, I entered the second stage of tour guide O.

(2) Mature and rigid

A mature and successful tour guide, like a troika, must have the ability to master the language: (1) "Simplicity is the sister of talent". Tourists have limited time to stay in the scenery. During the period, you should not only watch, but also take photos, listen to explanations and take notes. The tour guide's explanation should not be too full, and the language must be concise and clear. (2) The ability to control tourists' emotions may be exaggerated, but the fact is that when a tour guide controls the language well and expresses his words, it will attract tourists. At the same time, tour guides can feel the landscape, experience the landscape and convey this feeling with their own hearts, and tourists will also be infected. Don't think that these scenic spots can emerge with your eyes closed after you have been there countless times. In fact, the scenery of the four seasons is different. Dawn in spring, fog in autumn, rain in summer and snow in winter all feel different. Tour guides should always keep fresh and impress tourists. First of all, they should impress tourists. (3) Mastering tour guide skills and artistic ability, the highest skill is no skill. This paper has no intention of using some rules to standardize tour guide skills, but only makes some explanations on several essential links.

A. The explanation of paving scenic spots should be simple and make the finishing point. Before that, paving the road is essential. For example, the social causes of Suzhou gardens, the closeness of gardens, the deep necessity of alleys outside gardens, and the landscape retreat consciousness of garden owners. , it must be stated.

B. Every garden in Suzhou has its own characteristics, but in the eyes of tourists, it is similar. Tour guides avoid repeating "similarities" when explaining stress, and focus on their own "differences". On the water surface treatment in Humble Administrator's Garden, the relationship between its vastness and landscape painting, and the narrow wall after entering the garden is in sharp contrast with the plain landscape in Humble Administrator's Garden. Therefore, we can better appreciate the beauty of the garden by focusing on the space treatment in the garden. Master Wang's garden is small and exquisite, livable and feasible, picturesque and thoughtful, and is a typical residential garden.

C. comparison

The above characteristics are the comparison between private gardens. In order to give visitors a deeper understanding, it is necessary to compare the royal gardens with private gardens, and the western gardens with trees trimmed into geometric blocks, lawn fountains and sculptures with those in China. It is not only a comparison in appearance, but also a deeper comparison in concept. In Japanese dry landscape gardens, although China's concept of "three islands in one pool" was inherited, dry landscape replaced the position of water in China gardens in a more abstract and conceptual form, in which sand symbolizes the beach and extends to water. Through various comparisons, the features of the scene in front of us can be clear, full and complete. According to the questionnaire survey, 80% tour guides often compare the content with the related content in their parks.

D. echo

Don't repeat the same parts related to each landscape, but the main line should be clear and echo before and after. For example, the contrast between the straight and black-and-white calligraphy stones in and between corridors, the feminine and masculine bamboo stones in front of the powder wall, the virtual and real contrast between pavilions and pavilions, the contrast between yin and yang and the dynamic and static contrast, and even the contrast between banana and bamboo shadow in the corner ... All these are based on the philosophy of China people and have a meaning, an explanation and a response.

(3) Development and innovation

There is no fixed pattern or limited framework for tour guide style. It is not difficult to enter the stage of development and innovation as long as you have the heart. The questionnaire survey shows that 18% people have experienced the stage of denying themselves, and 55% people have their own ideas. In fact, the two should be closely related. It is difficult to create a new me without denying the past me. The innovation mentioned here covers a wide range, from an academic point of view to tour guide skills and speeches. In short, it's your own business. Many tour guides freely use many explanation skills in the long-term accumulation process, telling historical facts, combining reality with reality, interspersed with legends and stories, so that guests can deepen their impressions in a relaxed and happy atmosphere; Talk about age and refer to analogy; Use the corresponding age of the tourist's country; Say the numbers and compare them with what you can see and touch. This kind of explanation is far more vivid, interesting and impressive than the classroom.

Although tour guides are not experts, they may express more professional opinions in actual operation. Lotus has been planted in the middle of the Humble Administrator's Garden, and the surrounding buildings are also named after lotus: "Lotus Wind All Around", "Yuanxiang Hall" and "Lotus Champs". Lotus is planted every year, and a lotus exhibition has been held in the past two years. The giant lotus leaf is more than one meter above the water surface, covering the whole pond. Visitors who have never seen the lotus all praise her beauty, but it is really difficult to compliment her by analyzing the principle of gardening and appreciating it from an intuitive point of view. Because lotus leaves cover the pond and there is no water surface, the advantage of taking water as the landscape in the garden is lost. So what about the ancient lotus planting? At that time, it was planted in a jar, which was buried at the bottom of the pool, and there were two hibiscus trees that came out of the water, "out of the mud but not stained", slim and graceful, and you can imagine her beauty. The tour guide's explanation needs to be analyzed with his brain, not blindly followed. Different people have different opinions, so he can express his own opinions and create his own guide words. China's tourism industry is a sunrise industry, and China's tour guide is a young profession. History has given tour guides excellent opportunities for development, and rich landscapes have provided them with an infinitely broad stage to display their talents. Every tour guide should find his own coordinate position according to his own characteristics and specialties, study hard and work hard according to the objective law of tour guides' growth and maturity, shorten the development process as soon as possible, and become a stylish and attractive tour guide.