Who can be a ToursByLocals.com Guide?
1. Legal Requirements
Guides must meet all legal requirements to give tours in their area. In some cases, this means a specific credential issued by an appropriate authority. Our current understanding of the requirements of each jurisdiction are listed on the appropriate ToursByLocals page.
2. Competence
All guides must be competent to deliver the tours that they offer on the site.
On ToursByLocals, a ‘tour’ is broadly defined:
If a guide is interpreting the cultural or natural heritage of an area, they must have specific expertise in that area. In many cases, they will have credentials issued by a recognized tour guiding association or appropriate government body. Once verified, these credentials are sufficient proof of competence for initial listing of a guide on ToursByLocals.
If the guide is simply escorting travelers and offering practical local advice, such as ‘how to cook a local meal’ or ‘nightlife of a city’ they may be a passionate local person without any formal training in tour guiding. Guides offering this sort of tour must go through the ToursByLocals approval process of interview and reference checking.
Each ToursByLocals guide profile page has a credentials section where these credentials are displayed.
3. Locals Only
All guides must be ‘locals’ – having lived in the area for reasonable length of time.
4. Agree to Terms
Guides must agree to the ‘Tour Guide Agreement’ and the ToursByLocals ‘Tour Guide Business’. These are listed on the ToursByLocals website.