Tourist guides

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Tourist guides (also guest guides, city guides or tourist guides or the Anglicismus Guide; in parts of Germany also cityscape cleaners) are local and competent persons who receive, care for and accompany nationals and foreigners. They impart – in local language or in the required foreign language – sound knowledge about geography, history, art history as well as cultural, economic, social facts and connections.

The guide must be distinguished from the guide, who travels with the group and looks after them throughout the journey.

History and tasks
The profession of tourist guide originated with the advent of tourism. Already in the 17th century there was the professional title in the Vatican state. The term Cicerone (presumably derived from the eloquence of a Cicero for a guide through the historical sites of the Mediterranean) spread to Western Europe.

Today, the task of guest guides is to accompany commented city tours, city tours, city walks, museum and castle tours, excursions, study trips and the like. Groups of people from the circle of tourists, city travelers, trippers, holidaymakers, museum and exhibition visitors etc. are usually accompanied and guided, but also partly by conference participants or otherwise interested parties as well as, in particular, special guided tours often by locals and people from the nearer or wider region.

In many of the EU countries, guests are accompanied by a state-certified guide who not only presents art, history, monuments, landscape and nature in museums, galleries and archaeological sites, etc., but also introduces guests to customary customs and culinary habits and represents the country.

Legal bases

In Germany, the profession of tour guide is neither regulated by law nor does it have a uniform and precise professional profile and is therefore often confused with the profession of tour guide. Anyone can carry out this activity, for people who earn (part of) their livelihood from this activity, a business registration is required. German tourist offices, which use guides, usually carry out training courses for working as guides in tourist areas or places. In order to create a uniform European standard for the training of guest guides and tour guides, since 2008 there is a training system for guest guides and tour guides in accordance with DIN EN 15565 of the European Committee for Standardization CEN, which should provide a high-quality basis for the curricula of training providers in this area. However, this standard for training says nothing about whether recognition by cities, regions or the state as a whole is necessary for the exercise of the profession.

In Albani