| My brother was a tour guide when he was in college. I'll relay some tips he told me about.
1. I think someone mentioned earlier in this thread organizing a tour in the order of a typical day. That's what my brother did, with great success. They would start off at the dorms, then go to one dining hall, then to the gym, and then to health services (in case you sprained your ankle at the gym or something), then to classes, then to the campus's garden (to relax after classes I suppose), then to the library, then the food court, then to the student union, and finally ending at the football field. Of course, the order can be changed if it's inefficient--the last thing a tour group will want to do is start off at the dorms, which are next to the football field, then go to the gym across the campus, then come all the way back for the football field.
2. He also handed out an itinerary. It listed everywhere they would visit, along with a brief description, and a little thumbnail picture of each. His contact information was also at the top. It allowed for tour groups to know how far along they were, and also when looking over it in the future, the pictures would make remembering each place easier.
3. Be assertive towards parents. He always stressed from the beginning in subtle ways that this tour was for the students, not the parents, and had very few problems with parents asking too many questions, in which case he would direct the group to look around the room for a moment and explore, then pull the parent aside and ask them if they had any more questions before the tour continued.
4. Stand out--when my brother gave tours on the weekends, he would always arrange for a friend to "run" into him and his tour group while walking across the quad. He would greet his friend and introduce him to the tour group, and his friend would regale them with a fun story about the quad. Not one of those hokey stories that other people have been mentioning, but something unique. |