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The wait is finally over. The Results of the first
annual TourDirecting.com Tour Director survey are in! In all
70 Tour Directors took the survey. Lets look at the results:
Who Took the Survey? 60 percent have over 5 years experience as
a TD
67 percent were female
1 percent under 30 years of age
16 percent 30 to 40
20 percent 41-50
46 percent 51-60
16 percent 61-70
Politics: 92 percent were US citizens and all but one of them
plans to vote. Of the voters:
62 percent plan to vote for Kerry
35 percent for Bush.
Three percent for Nader.
40 percent support the war in Iraq.
66 percent believe same sex couples should have the right to
marry 77 percent describe themselves as pro-choice 27 percent
are Republicans,
46 percent Democrats and
27 percent Independent. Technology 42 percent carry a laptop computer on
tour
95 percent carry a cell phone
63 percent carry a digital camera
When asked how much
time tour directors spend on the internet and/or reading and sending
email while on tour, they responsed 52 percent less than 2 hours
28 percent 2 to 5 hours
17 percent 5 to 10 hours
3 percent over ten hours Tour Directing Practices While on Tour:
68 percent play
music
58 percent show movies
62 percent show documentaries
17 percent sometimes sell their own excursions
49 percent occasionally receive commissions from gift shops
66 percent play games and contests
17 percent sometimes fall asleep on the bus
52 percent sometimes socialize with passengers in their off time
12 percent mention tipping the tour director
59 percent mention tipping the driver
47 percent read passenger evaluations before they are given to the
company
Sampling of what tour directors like best about tour directing:
The people, the places, and just the whole
experience.
I like being someplace different every day.
Meeting the
different people and the spontaneous discoveries along the way.
Sharing new experiences with my passengers and putting a smile on
their face.
Freedom to be seeing and doing. Getting to "see the
world" and doing research about the destinations.
No boss
breathing down your neck
The freedom.
I sometimes think, I too am on
a vacation.
The people I meet along the way are 99% wonderful.
Sampling of what tour directors do not like about tour directing: Annoying people who
whine.
Hotels that don't try to accommodate rooming requests.
If
anything goes wrong, the tour director usually gets the brunt of it
.
Same thing over and over.
Unable to
change routine tours second or third time thru.
The complaints
Loneliness too long hours; being 'on stage' all day;
complaints
about services and venues that you can't control;
working sometimes
with apathetic or stupid front desk personnel;
not enough free time
or availability to exercise;
too much heavy, unhealthy food. not
being supported by the office, the hours you put in and were never
compensated for,
no benefits nor paid vacation, nor access to a free
ticket as any other member of the travel company might have,
complaining whining passengers expecting every drop of blood in your
body,
macho drivers who
know it all...don't get me started.
Giving up the best of yourself
to strangers and only having the bitch and moan left when you get
home for your family and friends.
Missing family
functions like weddings, etc.
Sample of what tour directors would change about tour directing: Companies would
treat tour managers with respect and appreciate the demands of the
job and all we do to make them successful. Good work would be
rewarded over cronyism. More
respect for TDs by the companies they work for. Recognition that
without us they HAVE NO TOURS. Better benefits.
The attitude of some operators that they
are doing us a favor by letting us travel free, and getting paid is
a bonus
Respect from the tour operators for our
professionalism because if we weren't doing a good job making their
'package' work (and more likely FIXING it), they wouldn't have good
results....and benefits like health insurance and a ticket somewhere
so YOU, the tour director could take a vacation.
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