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Author : Julia N. Albrecht & Trisha Dwyer
School/Work Place : University of Otago, New Zealand & Department of Conservation, New Zealand
Contact : julia.albrecht@otago.ac.nz
Year : 2015

Scholarship on guiding and interpretation positions formal training as a central factor in guide instruction. Guide training operates in the area that mediates between personal characteristics, attitudes and knowledge of the guides and what may be desirable qualities from the visitors’ perspectives. Notably, this dichotomy is not necessarily reflected in the formal guide training provided by industry associations, tertiary education institutions and tour operating companies. Generally, the focus in training for guiding and interpretation is on knowledge of the tour content, communication skills, delivery of presentations, customer service skills, group management, and health and safety. Competency in particular skills such as climbing or kayaking may be required for adventure tourism guides. Certificates thus earned may be a requirement for future employment as a guide. The underlying assumption of these training approaches is that they are conducive to guide learning. Little is known about how guides actually acquire knowledge and develop their skills in guiding and interpretation over time. This paper departs from the assumption that training has a vital impact on guide development and instead posits lifelong learning as the most significant formative influence on guides. Studies on guiding have to date overlooked the importance of informal learning and its potentially influential role in professional development. This paper, based on primary empirical research on guides’ perspectives on the interpretation of indigenous cultural heritage, argues that lifelong learning is more formative than formal guide training and related education. Life experience and prior learning of both indigenous and non-indigenous guides inform and influence their performance. In addition to the empirical findings, the discussion in this paper is based on a review of the relevant literatures on guiding, interpretation, and learning in the context of tourism.


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
» Think Tank XV Lifelong learning for guiding and interpretation file 2948 Jul 27, 2015

Scholarship on guiding and interpretation positions formal training as a central factor in guide instruction. Guide training operates in the area that mediates between personal characteristics, attitudes and knowledge of the guides and what ...

Author: Julia N. Albrecht & Trisha Dwyer 

Year: 2015 

3 Think Tank XV The role of interpretation in mindfulness/mindlessness... file 3587 Jul 27, 2015

Cultural tourism is recently receiving increasing attention from southern African countries (The South African National Heritage and Cultural Tourism Strategy, 2012; Van Veuren, 2001). Cultural tourism is promoted as a local development stra...

Author: Haretsebe Manwa, Dudu Boemah & Emile Coetzee 

Year: 2015 

2 Think Tank IV Cultural Tourism as a Means for Sustainability in a Ma... file 4169 Oct 13, 2013

Tourism has become for many islands a means of social, economic and cultural development through the creation of jobs, raising standards of living and through the development of local resources for culture and heritage. Thus, many of these d...

Author: Chryso Panayidou 

Year: 2004 

1 Think Tank IV It's Mostly About Me: Reasons why Volunteers contribut... file 5413 Oct 13, 2013

This paper contributes to the debate by reporting on inital findings from a wider study of volunteers in museums and art museums that was designed to empirically explore volunteer motivation, expectations, values and commitment. The aim of t...

Author: Deborah Edwards 

Year: 2004 

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