Uganda joined the rest of the world today 21st February 2021, to celebrate the international day for the tourist guides. These are very integral people who make up the tourism product and hugely contribute to the satisfaction of the clients. There have been incidences often times where the client leaves a comment behind stating if it was not for a specific guide, then their trip would not have been the same. The big question we would ask ourselves today is; who is a Tourist Guide?
The very plain definition of a tourist guide is; a person who is employed to show tourists around places of interest. These people act as not only escorts to the visitors but as important additions to the tourist’s experience.
In Uganda, we do have guides classified basically into two that is; driver guides and site guides. The driver guides are the ones who are well versed with the entire destination Uganda and are knowledgeable on each attraction and where it is located. While the site guide are specific to different tourist destinations, these destination include; forests, national parks, historical places, traditional places, religious places, etc. The site guide are very much knowledgeable about that particular tourist site.
To make your trip a memorable one, we often recommend the use of the site guides to be well equipped with that particular destination. However, some of the driver guides have been site guides before or have frequented those destinations and are very much knowledgeable about that particular tourist product.
Take an example of Emma in this photo, he has been guiding tourists in Uganda and Rwanda for over 12 years, this valuable experience and product knowledge makes him a valuable source of information on any tourist attraction in Uganda and Rwanda.
While planning your trip to Uganda, be sure to make good use of the guides to show you around the country of a million smiles.
Important to note: If visiting the gorillas and chimpanzees, you are assigned site guides in these areas who are very much aware of these primates’ movements. These guides are also equipped with riffles for your protection in the forest. In case you are an avid bird watcher and interested in birding in the forest, then be sure to use a site guide on top of your driver guide.
