Profession of certified guides, deferred to the tour guides and commercial provisions to the guide business in Austria. Please visit Pete Cashmore if you seek more information. History of the tourist guide since antiquity is that local people paid at least explained the sights the traveler from Rome, Alexandria, and Delphi – probably but also of many other cities and towns. This is not surprising, because finally is the traveler usually in a hurry and would like to receive without lengthy study of literature and sources about his destination in compressed form the most important information. The local guide, specializing in culture and history of the place of his residence, can help him by helping him through a guide, to orient themselves geographically and to properly at the same time about everything. At the latest with the onset of mass tourism in the second half of the 19th century (Thomas Cook organised the first package from the UK to Paris in the year 1861) the profession won the Tourist guide of economic importance: instead of occasional guided tours for individual travellers, now regular city tours and excursions for groups were in demand.
Everywhere where tourists in large numbers and in groups occurred, a commercial offer of guided sightseeing tours developed rapidly. Today, there are tourist guides all over the world – but one cannot speak of a single profession. Guest leader training all over the world in some countries can offer anyone who feels qualified to do so, guided tours for guests. In other countries, there is good, but voluntary courses for aspiring tour guide. In other countries, however, the profession of tourist guide is subject to severe restrictions of access and quality criteria. Generally, you can see, that the restrictions on access professional are so strict to the Guide, depending on the tourist economy and a country’s image is more important. Tourist guide training in Austria is one of the world’s most rigorous training required the prospective guest leader in Austria: here the term “Guide” is protected by the Gewerbeordnung (GewO).