Social enterprise Women in Travel CIC has launched The Tour Guiding Academy, an online training portal which teaches participants to design, develop and deliver a day tour based on their own narrative, experience and background. The training focuses on personal storytelling and exploring destinations through the eyes, lives and cultures of the guides delivering them, enabling each guide to offer a unique and authentic perspective on the places visited.
Importantly, the company says, for every person that registers for the training at a cost of £350, Women in Travel will donate access to the same training to a disadvantaged woman from its community without the means to pay, helping to support the social enterprise’s wider mission to provide all women with the opportunity to fulfil their economic and individual potential through employability and entrepreneurship. No prior travel experience or training is required, as Women in Travel has brought together a team of global experts and tutors to deliver a programme that covers all the necessary skills, and that can be taken at the participants’ own pace.
Founder and Managing Director Alessandra Alonso commented: “The Covid-19 crisis disproportionately affected women at all levels of society, but it also allowed us to connect with our own communities like never before. That is why we saw an opportunity to provide local women with the skills and confidence to design and deliver tours within their neighbourhoods, in turn giving them freedom, opportunity and revenue. We started the process in 2020 and we are now building on and elevating that concept to reach many more women.
“We know consumers have an appetite for more personal and authentic insights, so we think the Tour Guiding Academy is going to be a win-win for individuals, businesses and consumers. Most importantly it enables us to provide opportunities for income generation and even employment to women who most need it.”
Women in Travel is also calling on tour operators and other relevant travel businesses to put staff members through the training, enabling them to up-skill. It also encourages them to use Academy graduates as suppliers, helping clients and customers enjoy more diverse experiences as each tour will be uniquely themed and will offer a more individual take on destinations than traditional tours.
Overarching modules already available on the platform cover: The workings of the travel and tourism sector; creative and engaging storytelling; organising and packaging a story into a tour; customer service, and managing and delivering on expectations; and marketing and selling a tour.
The online training is supported by regular face-to-face, virtual mentoring and engagement to ensure that the graduates feel part of a like-minded community.
