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Online learning can prepare you for the profession. Real-world experience can add another layer. At ITMI, we believe the right path depends on the person taking it.
By Joan Keddell, President, International Tour Management Institute (ITMI)
There was a time when becoming a professional Tour Director or Guide almost always meant traveling to attend in-person training.
Today, that has changed.
Technology has made professional training accessible to people wherever they live and at very different stages of their lives. Someone considering a second career no longer necessarily needs to leave home for weeks. A working professional can learn around an existing schedule. Someone living hundreds—or even thousands—of miles from ITMI can become part of the same classroom and community.
But accessibility is only part of what has changed.
Many people who come to tour directing are not starting from scratch. They arrive with years of experience leading people, teaching, managing details, solving problems, telling stories, caring for others, or traveling the world. They may already possess many of the qualities the profession requires, yet not know how those strengths fit into the role of a professional Tour Director or Guide.
What they are looking for is a framework.
They want to understand not only what a Tour Director does, but why things are done a certain way—how timing, communication, guest care, logistics, group dynamics, storytelling, and countless behind-the-scenes decisions come together to create an experience that feels effortless to the traveler.
Online training can provide that professional foundation.
For some people, that foundation—combined with instructor guidance, live practice, and career preparation—is exactly what they need to step confidently into their first assignment.
Others reach a point when they want to see the profession from two perspectives at once: experiencing the tour as a guest while beginning to observe it as a Tour Director.
They want to watch a real tour unfold and ask themselves:
Why did the Tour Director make that decision?
What is happening behind the scenes?
How would I handle that?
And perhaps most importantly: Can I see myself doing this?
That is what we have discovered along the way:
There isn’t one right way to prepare for this profession.
Some people complete their online training and are ready to step directly into their first professional assignment. Others finish that same training and say, “I understand it. I’ve practiced it. Now I’d really like to see it happening on the road.”
Both are valid. Both can lead to successful careers. And both begin with the same professional foundation.
The First Road: Learning the Profession Online
Tour directing can look deceptively simple from the guest’s seat. The Tour Director welcomes everyone aboard. The motorcoach leaves. Attractions happen. Meals appear. Luggage arrives. Questions get answered. The group moves from one place to another.
When it is done well, much of the work is almost invisible. But behind that experience is preparation, timing, communication, judgment, organization, problem-solving, and an understanding of people.
That is what professional training begins to uncover.
ITMI’s online Tour Director and Tour Guide training isn’t simply about learning destinations or memorizing what to say on a motorcoach. It is about understanding how a tour works and how a Tour Director or Guide thinks.
Students work through the practical realities of the profession: preparing for a tour, understanding itineraries, confirmations and manifests, managing timing, working with hotels and suppliers, communicating with drivers, handling luggage and seating, delivering commentary, anticipating guest needs, and responding when something doesn’t go according to plan.
For students completing ITMI’s Tour Guide Certification, that learning also includes a live local immersion. Students independently seek out and attend a guided experience in their own area, then examine it through the eyes of a developing professional. They observe how the Guide welcomes the group, interprets the destination, uses stories, manages questions, engages different personalities, and brings a place to life.
It is an early opportunity to move beyond simply enjoying a tour and begin asking, “Why did the Guide make that choice—and what might I do in that situation?”
The experience is different from ITMI’s optional On-the-Road Experience™, which places qualified participants alongside a working Tour Director, driver, and guests on an actual multi-day tour. But both reflect something central to ITMI’s approach: learning becomes more meaningful when students have an opportunity to observe the profession happening in the real world.
The technical side is only part of the job. Because tours are made up of people.
A Tour Director may have 40 guests on a motorcoach—and 40 different personalities, expectations, travel styles, needs, and reasons for being there. That is why ITMI training also explores the psychology of group travel.
How do different personalities respond to change? Why can something that seems insignificant to one guest become very important to another? What happens when two personalities clash? How do you recognize the guest who isn’t telling you something is wrong? When should you step in—and when should you give someone space? How do you care for the individual without losing sight of the entire group?
These skills go far beyond logistics. They are the human side of tour directing.
Open Mic: Where Online Learning Becomes a Conversation
One thing we never wanted online training to become was a person sitting alone in front of a computer, simply clicking through lessons. That is one reason Open Mic has become a valuable part of the ITMI learning experience.
Students come together live to practice, ask questions, work through situations, hear different perspectives, and learn from one another. Someone may be asked to make an announcement. Another might work through a difficult guest situation. A discussion about group dynamics may produce several reasonable ways of responding—because there isn’t always one scripted answer when you are dealing with people.
A future Tour Director needs knowledge and procedures. They also need to become comfortable thinking, speaking, listening, and responding in the moment.
Open Mic provides a place to begin doing that before the first group of guests ever steps aboard. It also reinforces a lesson that matters throughout a travel career: You never stop learning from the people around you.
For Many, That Road Is Enough
This is important: ITMI’s On-the-Road Experience™ is not the “completion” of the online training.
Our graduates have moved from training into professional assignments and successful careers in many different ways. Some are ready to begin working immediately. Some start with local guiding. Some find an opportunity through a relationship they have built. Some attend industry conferences and meet tour operators. Others accept that first assignment and discover that the first tour itself is where their confidence begins to grow.
There has never been only one road into this profession.
But we also began hearing from another group of learners. They were essentially saying: “Before I’m responsible for the tour, I’d like the opportunity to experience one from the other side.”
That led us to build another option.
The Second Road: ITMI’s On-the-Road Experience™
The On-the-Road Experience gives qualified participants an opportunity to join a live tour and begin connecting what they have learned with what actually happens in the field.
It isn’t a simulated tour. There are real guests. Real schedules. Real hotels and attractions. A real Tour Director and driver doing their jobs. And all the little things that never appear quite the same way on paper.
A participant begins watching the tour differently. Why did the Tour Director make that announcement now? What happened before everyone walked into the restaurant? Why is the Tour Director talking with the driver? What happens when a guest is late? How does the Tour Director keep the group moving without making people feel rushed? What does good guest care look like when someone needs a little extra help?
Suddenly, the concepts learned online have context.
The participant is not there to replace the Tour Director. They are there to learn from the tour happening around them and, when appropriate, put some of their preparation into practice.
Experiences may take place on domestic or international tours, depending upon available opportunities and participating tour operators. And as our first participants discovered, everyone notices—and learns—something different.
Meet Four People Who Took the First Road—and Then Chose the Second
Bill, David, John, and Nars came to ITMI with very different lives behind them.
Bill brought decades of executive leadership and a lifetime of travel. David brought years of education, music, storytelling, and group leadership. John brought more than 30 years of operations, logistics, customer service, and leadership. Nars brought corporate program management, international business, university teaching, and intercultural studies.
Sound familiar? Very few people arrive at tour directing without bringing another life with them. That is often where some of their greatest strengths begin.
With Landmark Tours and Starr Tours opening the doors to live-tour experiences, these first participants had an opportunity to discover what would happen when their training, previous experience, and individual personalities met the road.
They did not all discover the same thing.
Bill Discovered Confidence
Bill wanted to know whether his years of leadership, travel, and personal interests could translate into the professional role of a Tour Director.
His experiences included domestic and international touring with ITMI’s experience partner Landmark Tours, which gave him the opportunity to observe the profession in different environments. As timing, commentary, guest care, preparation, and the Tour Director-driver relationship began coming together, something shifted.
“I started this journey hoping I could become a Tour Director. I came home knowing I can.”
Training had given him the tools. The road gave him a chance to trust them.
David Began Watching Differently
David already knew how to lead adults and students around the world. What changed was the lens through which he was watching. He began connecting what he already knew about leading people with a professional framework for creating an even better journey. He decided to join ITMI’s tour operator experience partner, Starr Tours.
Instead of simply experiencing a tour, he began noticing what was happening behind the scenes: timing, decisions, communication, the partnership between the Tour Director and the driver, and all the small details guests may never see.
Again and again, he found himself thinking:
“How would I handle that?”
That is an important transition to professional touring.
John Saw the Psychology of Group Travel Become Real
John decided he preferred ITMI’s experience because learn-by-doing was important to him. He chose a Starr Tours experience.
During an attraction, John noticed one guest becoming irritated with another guest who was asking many questions.
He recognized something from his ITMI’s psychology of group travel class training: different personalities, different needs, and different ways of processing the same situation. Except now it was not an exercise. Two real guests were standing in front of him.
John approached the irritated guest, listened, and helped her see the situation differently. The interaction changed. So did John’s confidence.
“That was a key fact in my belief that I can do this!”
The moment was not dramatic. But much of excellent tour directing isn’t. Sometimes it is simply noticing what is happening between people before a small problem becomes a larger one.
Nars Discovered That Different Could Be an Advantage
Nars wondered whether being Taiwanese, speaking with an accent, and occasionally mixing up a word might make it harder to connect with American guests. She also decided it was essential to join a tour with Starr Tours.
Then she met them.
She listened to their stories. She remembered celebrations. She helped when someone needed assistance, noticed mobility concerns, and shared important information with the Tour Director.
At one stop, Nars noticed a guest sitting on some low steps and wondered whether she might need help getting up. Nars came back to check on her. The guest looked at her and said:
“You came back for me.”
That moment stayed with Nars.
Instead of creating the distance she had worried about, her differences became part of the curiosity, humor, and conversations she shared with guests.
Her conclusion captures something important about the On-the-Road Experience:
“The online training tells you what the job is. The road tells you whether it’s yours.”
Two Roads—Not Two Levels
This may be the most important distinction of all.
We do not see online training and the On-the-Road Experience as Level One and Level Two. They aren’t.
Think of them instead as different ways of preparing for the same professional road.
For one person, online coursework, 1:1 instructor guidance with a primary instructor, and Open Mic practice, a local Tour Guide immersion, and career preparation may provide exactly what they need before accepting a first assignment. For someone else, adding an On-the-Road Experience may help build confidence or offer an opportunity to observe the profession before assuming responsibility for the group.
Neither choice predicts who will become the better Tour Director.
Eventually, every professional must do something no course—online or otherwise—can do for them: bring themselves to the job. Their judgment. Their personality. Their previous career. Their cultural background. Their humor. Their ability to listen. Their way of caring for people.
Professional training does not erase those differences. Good training helps people learn how to use them.
The Road Is Open to More Than Current ITMI Students
The On-the-Road Experience isn’t limited to students currently completing ITMI training.
ITMI alumni who would benefit from additional real-world experience are welcome to explore it.
We also welcome inquiries from qualified graduates of other recognized Tour Director and Guide training programs seeking a similar opportunity to connect their prior training with field experience.
Available experiences will vary because they depend upon actual tours and tour operators willing to participate.
That brings us to some of the most important people in making this possible.
Someone Has to Open the Door
Our first On-the-Road Experiences happened because Landmark Tours and Starr Tours said yes.
They allowed people preparing for this profession to step aboard real tours and learn alongside working travel professionals.
That generosity extends beyond the companies themselves.
It requires Tour Directors willing to share what they know. Drivers willing to have someone learning alongside them. Guests willing to welcome another person into their travel experience. And people throughout the journey willing to answer a question, explain a decision, or simply allow someone to observe.
To Landmark Tours, Starr Tours, and the Tour Directors, drivers, guests, and tourism professionals who helped make these first experiences possible: thank you.
The first four have come home. Others are ready to follow.
Which Road Is Right for You?
Perhaps you are ready to complete your training and go directly after that first professional assignment. Go.
Perhaps you would like a little more practice through Open Mic before you do. Come practice.
Perhaps you are an alumnus—or a qualified graduate of another recognized program—and you are thinking, “I’d really like a few days on the road before I take the next step.” Come talk with us.
And perhaps you are already out there—a Tour Director, Guide, tour operator, or industry partner with experience you could share with someone coming next. We would like to talk with you, too.
There isn’t a single right path into this profession. There never has been.
What matters is finding the road that helps you become the professional you want to be—and then being ready when it is your turn to welcome the guests aboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the On-the-Road Experience required to complete ITMI’s online certification training?
No. ITMI’s online certification training provides the professional foundation students need to prepare for work as Tour Directors and Guides. The On-the-Road Experience™ is an additional option for qualified individuals who would benefit from observing and experiencing a live tour before accepting their first professional assignment.
Does ITMI’s Tour Guide Certification include a live experience?
Yes. Students completing the Tour Guide Certification are asked to independently seek out and attend a live guided experience in their own community or region. This allows them to observe a working Guide and consider how interpretation, storytelling, group engagement, and guest care appear in practice. This local immersion differs from ITMI’s On-the-Road Experience™, which offers qualified participants the opportunity to join an actual multi-day tour and observe the responsibilities of a professional Tour Director in the field.
Who may participate in an ITMI On-the-Road Experience?
Opportunities may be available to current ITMI students, ITMI alumni, and qualified graduates of other recognized Tour Director and Guide training programs.
What happens during an On-the-Road Experience?
Participants join an actual tour with real guests, schedules, accommodations, attractions, and transportation. They observe the working relationship between the Tour Director and driver, see how timing and logistics are managed, interact with guests, and connect their previous training with situations unfolding in the field. Participants are there to observe and learn—not to replace the working Tour Director. When appropriate, they may also have opportunities to assist or put some of their preparation into practice.
Are domestic and international experiences available?
Experiences may take place on domestic or international tours, depending upon available tours and participating tour operators.
Does completing an On-the-Road Experience guarantee employment?
No. The On-the-Road Experience is designed to provide observation, practice, professional development, and greater insight into the role. It does not guarantee employment or placement with a particular tour operator.
How are On-the-Road opportunities selected?
Each experience depends upon the availability and approval of participating tour operators, as well as the needs and circumstances of the particular tour. Tour dates, destinations, duration, and the number of participants will vary.
Looking for More Time on the Road?
Explore ITMI’s On-the-Road Experience™ →
Ready to Begin Your Training?
Explore ITMI Tour Director & Guide Training →
Are You a Tour Operator Willing to Open a Door?
Let’s Talk →
This article draws upon the experiences and reflections of ITMI students participating in the first On-the-Road Experiences made possible through Landmark Tours and Starr Tours.
