CubaPLUS Magazine

 The tour guide is the face, the image of a country for vacationers who visit a certain destination, hence the importance of the work of this professional who in one way or another often sacrifices his personal life to accompany the visitors without sparing time.

Whether happy or sad, due to some unexpected family event, whether he feels good or bad, the guide always has to put his best spirit towards vacationers who want to know everything related to the country they visit, both from the recreational, historical and cultural point of view.

That is why the guide has to be a professional with extensive knowledge of his country and, even, of the nation of origin of the visitors, because in this way he knows how to treat his clients. According to official texts, the guide is a person, duly trained and qualified, whose basic function is to receive, guide, inform and say goodbye to a traveler or a group, both national and foreign during a visit to a city or on an excursion that includes several places to show everything related to the history, culture and other information of the destination visited.

It is considered that depending on the work done by a guide, in most cases, visitors return to the country and become permanent or repeat clients. Guides have existed since the beginning of the 18th century, when tourism is considered to have emerged. As it is known, the name as such comes from Italian, when the figure of the cicerone existed in the palaces, churches and other places of attraction that were visited by the English and they were the ones who responded to the vital needs of the visitors.

There are several types of guides: tour guides, site guides who work in a specific place and specialize in the place such as a museum, theme park and other sites; transfer guides and coordinators. It is because of the importance of the work of these professionals that every February 21 since 1990, their International Day is celebrated to recognize their work, on the occasion of the founding in 1985 of the World Federation of Professional Tourist Guides (WFTGA, according to its acronym in English).

A big congratulations to all these essential professionals of the travel industry on their day.