Studying tourism management but focusing on exhibitions, do I need to get a tour guide certificate?

I majored in tourism management, majoring in exhibition planning and management, and graduated in 2009. During my freshman and sophomore years, I learned the basic knowledge of tourism management. The courses include tourism, tourism psychology, tourism economics, travel agency management, tourism transportation management, scenic spot development and management, tourism planning and development, and the exhibition section. The courses include project management, planning theory and practice, introduction to exhibitions, exhibition marketing, large-scale event organization and management, exhibition art design, conference management, exhibition organization and management, etc.

If you are a graduate of tourism management Undergraduate students, if they graduate with the right qualifications, they will basically work in travel agency planning, sales, etc. from the beginning. Specifically, I sit in the office and make phone calls to book hotels, air tickets, and train tickets, contact local hotels, and apply for visas; receive customer inquiries about routes; and sell travel products. If you want to be a tour guide, you usually take the self-study tour guide certificate in school (most sophomores take the tour guide certificate test. Our school - Beijing Foreign Language School has a first-time pass rate of about 50%. It is recommended that you take the test in English or a small language, and you want to use the tour guide certificate to get free admission to scenic spots across the country. The chances are slim, and you have to pay an annual management fee of 200 yuan. There are not many opportunities to work part-time. There are many junior tour guides, and the pay is very small. It usually costs 100-200 yuan a day for new people. Think about climbing the Great Wall in a 40-degree summer.) The competition among tour guides is very fierce, peers will squeeze each other out, and there is a strong sense of prevention. Nowadays, travel agencies usually quote very low prices, most of which are lower than the cost price. The profits of tour guides, drivers, and travel agencies all come from shopping at scenic spots and commissions, which reduce the cost of food and accommodation. Tourists often have conflicts with tour guides because of this. Being a tour guide requires strong physical strength, but also strong mental endurance. The one on TV who is running around the world needs to take the tour escort certificate. Only regular employees of a travel agency that handles outbound travel are eligible to apply for it with the recommendation of the hotel. It is also a skilled trade. If you lead a group from Hong Kong, then go on this line month after month. However, you can buy famous brands on behalf of others, do small business on Taobao, etc. It's not very stable anyway. As for the planning of scenic spots, don’t even think about it for undergraduates. Graduate students may not be qualified. Our school has accepted many scenic spot projects, and generally only university professors, built environment experts, and governments are qualified to make decisions.

As for exhibitions, we have done many exhibitions, large and small, in the past four years. Exhibitions include conferences, exhibitions, and large-scale events. The direction of employment is in the incentive department of a travel agency (the business is similar to that of travel, it is nothing more than applying for visas, checking the list of participants, picking up and dropping off, attending meetings, arranging food and accommodation, and decorating the venue - a whole migrant worker, when there is a large meeting, they are busy. , working day and night. When I was interning at China Travel Service, the girls in the department were each thinner than the other. After you have done a good job for 2 or 3 years, you will be given a fixed meeting project to do. At this time, you are called a project manager, but when you get busy, Managers also have to move chairs and clean tables)

Exhibition companies, such as Reed Exhibitions and Beijing Huagang. There are only two positions for undergraduate graduates in exhibition companies, one is telesales and the other is project assistant. Telemarketing will test your patience and ability to get frustrated. It is indeed challenging, but unfortunately not many people can handle it. Those who can endure it will be promoted to team leaders of the call center, and after a while, they may be given projects to work on. The project manager assistant is similar, but the things he does are more trivial, such as calling exhibitors and visitors, organizing databases, running errands to buy materials, and moving exhibition catalogues. . . If you perform well for 2 or 3 years, you will have the opportunity to advance to a project manager. Basically, the room for advancement is limited once you become a project manager. However, with customer resources, your worth will be higher, so if you have certain connections, social background, and like to deal with people, boys will have an advantage.

I also did internships at exhibition service providers and organizing committees. Service chambers include exhibition logistics transporters, builders, and exhibition booth design companies. The organizing committee is generally a temporary cooperation project team formed by government agencies, industry associations, large tourism exhibition companies, etc. (the same thing as the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee). This involves knowledge in various industries, such as logistics, design, construction, finance, etc.

In short, exhibitions are by no means as good and profitable as people think - anyway, I have not seen anyone making big money. It is common to have one meal a day, and it is also customary to stay up all night. If you are in this business, you know that you will not have any rest on Saturdays, but you may have some rest on Sundays. Absolutely trading youth for hard-earned money. The era of burning money in exhibitions is over. Abnormal domestic competition has made the development of the industry very unhealthy. There is no shortage of people in exhibitions, but there is a shortage of talents, and talents cannot be cultivated without 20 years of experience.

So I have no choice in the above professions. Now I am an editor of travel media and event planning and execution. By a strange combination of circumstances, I have combined the two majors very well. In addition, it is important to emphasize that no matter what major you study, English learning and the mastery of a second language are very important. Nowadays, everything is internationalized.