Transformative Tour Guiding: Training Tour Guides to be Critically Reflective Practitioners

Interpretation is an indispensable tool for achieving the goals of ecotourism (Weiler Pond, 1993). In the past, tour guides were usually untrained, but guide training is now common in most developed countries (McArthur, 1996). Tour guide training is an adult education activity, but much training is competency-based with an emphasis on knowledge transmission and skill acquisition. This article suggests that good training should lead to change, not only in terms of knowledge and skills, but also in attitudes and behaviour. It argues that good guide training should alter how guides think and act, and suggests that if trainee guides learn how to critique their own knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, they will be able to offer their clients (tourists) something more than a superficial introduction to a new environment, country or culture. Current guide-training practices in selected countries are reviewed and discussed. A case study of tour guide training in Kakadu National Park, Australia is presented and used as the basis for a proposed model of training, termed ‘transformative tour guiding’, which could improve the quality of ecotour guiding, as well as help sustain tourism sites.