Entertainment Reservation

Normally before an entertainment reservation is made, tour guide have to consider and identify the venue, name & location of the entertainment outlets (example of entertainment: culture show, fashion show, circus, concert, casino & etc.), date, time, business hours and safeties of the area.

Beside that, tour guide also has to check on any public performance and any special request from the tourists (e.g. group photo, VIP seats & etc.). Tour guide need to have knowledge of the entertainment outlets too (e.g. location of the toilets, emergency escape door & etc).

Making A Reservation

During making an entertainment reservation, tour guide need to inform the relevant entertainment outlets the number of pax is coming, type of show, date, time, and any special request from tourists. After reservation has done, the tour guide needs to obtain the contact number and person incharge for reference.

Reconfirm A Reservation

Reconfirm the reservation by contacting the relevant outlets using telephone or fax machine so that everything is in order on the actual day.

Finally tour guide need to inform his/her tourists on any rules to go into the entertainment outlets. For example any restriction of age or religion and their dress code either to wear formal, casual or would it will be cold in the entertainment outlets.

 

TOUR ITINERARY (Part 2)

In part 1, I gave some explaination what is tour itinerary all about. So in this post i would like to brief some of the itinerary (sepcificly meals arrangement) which tour guide should consider before start doing his/her guiding.

Tour Itinerary is very important to a tourists guide as it is provided a well-planned journey and actual schedule, which you have to follow when conducting your tour. From the itinerary, tour guide will know the duration of the tour, time arrangement of the places, places of interest, accommodations and meals arrangement required.

A good tour itinerary must be arrange in a proper and correct way to let the tourist able to have an enjoyable and memorable trip. So a tourist guide must study the itinerary properly, organize the visiting spots and relevant restaurants to ensure the tour goes smoothly. On the other hand, ensure that the itinerary has included all the visited spots as stated in the tour leader’s tour itinerary.

For meal arrangement, a tourist guide must have a list of restaurant’s and its contact number from the tour company. Basicly meal arrangement will have an optional as stated below:

 Full board, i.e. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 Half board, i.e. one or two meal.

 On our own.

Beside that, tourist guide should know and study some of the information below:

I) Location of the restaurant.

II) Types of food available. It can be classify into halal, non-halal and vegetarian.

III) Form of serving such as set menu, Buffet, a-la cart and Tailor made (special arrangement).

IV) Types of restaurant setting and business hours.

V) Mode of payment. (Cash, credit card or valid voucher)

Last but not least, to arrange an appropriate meal reservation you must provide the following information to your preffer restourant:

 Date and preferred mealtime.

 Total number of tourists, in aggregate of adults and children.

 Any specification such as vegetarian, infant, etc.

TOUR ITINERARY (Part 1)

Tour itinerary is usually defined as an agreement or a “Black and White” between travel agency and customer or tourist agrees on visit to a destination on a specific date with arrangement. As a tourist guide receive an assignment from a tour company, he/ she must ensure the following information are available:

I) Arrival detail including the arrival point, airline, flight number, arrival date and arrival time.

II) Departure details such as the departure point, airline, flight number, departure date and departure time.

III) Coach details like coach number, driver’s name and his contact number.

IV) B Tour itinerary details including the duration of days on the visited country, list of places will visit, type of transportation going to use, type of Hotel to stay and type of meals.

In addition, a tourist guide must ensure the necessary documents are provided:

I) Visit list completed with name, sex, and date of the birth and passport detail.

II) Meal vouchers.

III) Hotel vouchers.

IV) Welcome banner.

V) Letter on visa upon arrival from Ministry Of Domestic Department. This document only applicable for those tourists travels on group visa basis.

Contingency Plan

Contingency plan is an alternative plan in the event of the changes in the original plan due to unforeseen circumstances like delayed arrival or departure, accidents, floods, fire or unexpected disaster, snow storms or typhoon. Therefore, unconventional arrangements should be made by the tour guide as follow:

Itinerary will be reschedule because the place of interest not available for visits or there is a flight delay bad weather caused. Action to take:

(a) Inform the tourist agency of the latest development

(b) Recommend familiar with places of interest or new places on the itinerary.

(c) Inform to the relevant parties. For example hotel, restaurant and drivers.

(d) Obtain tour leader and tourist signatures on consent of the changes made.

(e) To keep the photocopy of the consent letter which are the tourist signature.


Accommodation is change when there is an increase in the rooms requested by the tourists or the hotel is full house or numbers of the room are incorrect. Action to take:

(a) To get approval from the travel agency before any additional room is booked.

(b) To get approval from the travel agency to arrange alternative same rate hotel for the tourist.

(c) To get the Hotel to arrange alterative same rate or upgrade hotel for the tourists.

(d) Should the number of the room required is correct, the travel agency will be notified and approved on any arrangements to be made.


The transportation is rearranged or alternative transport is provided if the coach breaks down, delay or accident and fire on the board of the coach. Action to take:

(a) Obtain authorization from the tour agency.

(b) Inform tourist of the changes in the tour.

(c) Notify relevant parties of changes in the hotel arrangements.


Meals. Rearrange the meals if the restaurants are closed or full house. Action to take:

(a) In this instance to identify a similar restaurant for the tourist

(b) Obtain authorization from the tour agency.

(c) Make a proper arrangement with the restaurant concerned.


Other contingency may arise like losing of document for examples passport or credit card. If the situation arises the tourist agency be informed and arrangements be made to the tourist concerned for the lost document with the relevant embassy.

To overcome such contingencies, keep a photocopy of each and every tourist passport in your group. If any mishap occurs, the records you have will assist them.

PERFORM BOARDING ARRANGEMENT

Another important thing that tour guide should take seriously when performing his/her duty are boarding arrangement. Here is a few step that you can consider as a basic guideline;

Step 1.

Airport boarding point- Tour guide shall be the last person to board the coach and obtain clearance from the tour leader (make sure no one is left behind, by conducting attendance check list) before the driver is allowed to proceed with the journey.

Step 2.

Direct group to lobby- Sometime hotel guest relation’s officer will meet and assist. Usually the hotel would have prepared all the details for check-in before the guest arrives. The rooming list could also be ready to ensure that the guest is allocated to their respective rooms according to the reservation. All luggage are to be tagged with the correct room number. If required collect portage advances from the group leader and disburses accordingly.

HANDLE LUGGAGE & ARRANGE PORTERS

Remember first impression will last forever! Being a tour guide or tour leader its like being a father to his daughter. You have to take care everything from A to Z and etc. Your position actually indicated your responsibilities.  The more you care the more you gain respect. The more you careless the more distrust on you.

Meanwhile, in this post i would like to share about how to handle luggage & arrange porters so that your tourist stop complaining about your performance to your agent.

Step 1.

Ensure that the group collects their own luggage (Make sure they leave nothing behind). Then check with the tour leader on any luggage abnormalities, any loss of luggage assist the tour leader in completing the airline-P.I.R. (Property Irregularity Report), if possible assist the tourist to convert their foreign currency to RM (Ringgit Malaysia) for purchase of toiletries ETC.

Step 2.
Count the number of luggage and confirm with the tour leader. Ensure the group does not leave behind any  hand luggage and advise the tour leader.

Meet & Greet Tourist

To become a tourist guide you must know how to greet your tourist. You have to learn from now how to treat them and get respect from them. You are the front liner and you should impress them. Once you let them down your will facing a big trouble along your tour. So remember first impression will last forever! Below is some guidelines for you to follow;

WELCOME of tourists is important task that all arriving tourists into Malaysia must be greeted and received in a proper manner. Before tourists arrived into KLIA, as a tourist guide you must gather all the relevant information pertaining to the arrival such as, group size, tour itinerary, group name list, name of the hotel to stay, Tour Leader and etc. 

You have to prepare a display card with key point information of the group to be used at the KLIA at the “meet and greet” time or, a banner will be used for special arrival. You have to arrive at least 45 minutes before the arrival time of group. Do not reach KLIA late because sometimes group may arrive early before the actual schedule time. On arrival at the airport, you have to wait at the international arrival gate to meet the group do not be shined with the display card.

Immediately, when tourists come out from the arrival hall, as a tourist guide, you must try to identify and make the first move rather than waiting for the foreign Tour Leader to look for you. First approaching in a good manner, warm smile with greetings will be important to make your duty as a professional tourist guide easily. Tourist must be felt welcome.

At the time of welcome “meet and greet”, you must always ensure to double check with Tour Leader, total passengers and ensure all tourists gather before proceeding to the coach. Ensure all luggages are in the tour luggage compartment, do a head count before coach takes off.

On the coach, as a tour guide you must introduce yourselves and also to greet the tourists with your every own welcome word “Selamat Datang Ke Malaysia” which means welcome to Malaysia once more as you may not have greeted some earlier. An introductory of your country beauty, do and don’t, general information and brief of the tour itinerary must be given to the tourists.

Tour guide should be very polite, friendly, helpful and pleasant to uphold the image of the profession and Malaysia.