BEIJING • China's booming tourism market, with its growing appetite for tailored and themed tours, is driving the demand for professional tour guides serving the country's tourists around the world.
One who knows the career well is Mr Lei Lei, a tour guide from Hubei province, who has been working and living in Paris for 13 years.
In 2006, Mr Lei went to France to do a postgraduate course in international trade. But after graduation, the global financial crisis made it extremely hard for him to find work. A friend persuaded him to become a registered tour guide on Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency.
"Starting from picking up and taking tourists to airports, I began to gradually master the multiple skills of being a tour guide. To provide better services, I got a French driver's licence and a local tour guide certificate," Mr Lei said.
Each month, he can earn about €3,000 (S$4,600), much more than he can from other part-time jobs.
What really helped his career take off, however, were two big shifts in the global tourist market.
First, more Chinese tourists began heading to Europe. The number of Chinese tourists to Europe doubled in the second quarter of last year, compared with the previous year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The second is that more Chinese are switching from holidaying as part of a group tour to travelling independently. "More and more tourists are not satisfied with glancing over sightseeing spots quickly with a tour group. They want to know more interesting stories and cultures. So more Chinese tourists favour booking a local tour guide and hearing more about local customs and events," Mr Lei said.
As part of his job, Mr Lei helps tourists book the most exotic hotels and takes them to eateries to enjoy the best food. His professionalism has since brought him more customers, enough for him to establish his own tourism company.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Liu Mengxia is another registered tour guide on Ctrip. Having decided she does not like jobs with fixed hours, she gained her tour guide certificate in China in 2015.
After just three years, she has built her own team of tour guides, including operations and customer service staff. During busy seasons, she can receive 10 orders a day.
According to Ctrip, there are more than 5,000 people registered as domestic tour guides in China.
The average service fees of a tour guide is around 300 yuan (S$60) to 400 yuan per day, and their average monthly salary is around 8,000 yuan - often higher than average local salaries, Ctrip said.
CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
