Conclusion
The revolution of technology reshaped the life in general and specially tourism, which
changed the profile of tourists and their desire for more thorough experience. This
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change is critical for guiding and led to arise of new trends in guiding. Tour guides
must develop themselves and be in line with new trends that affect their career.
Guides must embrace technology to improve their delivery of information during
guided tours, such as involving podcasts and smartphone apps into their tours. Still,
the communication is the target, tour guide interaction with tourists is the point,
technology can assist guides to customize the experience that tourists need and
expect.
The majority of the new trends in tour guiding are related to guiding in museums.
The
one-way traditional interaction between guide and visitor is not the ideal way in
future of museum guiding. Guide must make a good connection between his
interpretation and the object; he is the intermediary between the history of the object
and the knowledge of the visitor. A new trend in museum guiding is the electronic
guide, specialists in technology developed electronic museum guides which provide
the museum visitors with information, these electronic guides were used in many
museums: Natural History Museum of Calci, Marble Museum of Carrara, and
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The main shortage in these electronic guides is the ability
of communication;
Technological innovations can only help and enrich the guiding of
a professional tour guide but can’t substitute the human guide. Another trend in
museum guiding is virtual reality, a technology can provide a good knowledge and
information about exhibitions. The British Museum and other museums around the
world used the virtual reality technology in last years; a technology can be a good
support for guiding in museums; the guide can incorporate this model in his
interpretation. In Egypt this technology can be used with the collection of
Tutankhamun, the guide simply in the future guiding can make use of a virtual reality
model in the museum showing the tomb in the Valley of the Kings, and give
information concerning the discovery.
A new trend in museum guiding is to use robots in guiding. This technology was
applied in many places like the science museum in Osaka, robots were used in
another way to give certain information for tourists in museums; at the Museum of the
Great War in Meaux, France and American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Robot guides are not comparable with human guides, but information provided by
robot can reach people and distant places thanks to technology, and this feature could
help the human guide and be involved in his tour. An example of information related
to the provenance of pieces can be applied to the ancient Egyptian collection at
Alexandria National museum. The guide can use robots to enhance his interpretation
and give other information about the provenance of pieces, to support guiding of
some pieces like the statue of Amenemhat III, and the head of Akhenaton in this
museum. Another new trend in guiding is guiding “tourists with disabilities”. Tour
guides still need to be trained and equipped to help tourists with disabilities.
Lastly; guiding is a human activity, the core of the career are; guide’s personal
attitude, the experience, and interpretation which the guide offers and not just
information. Digital tools are never substituting the deep emotion and personal
communication which are presented through human interaction. On the contrary,
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Vol. 19 No. 3, (2020), pp. 35-47.
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digitization is a tool to enhance the interpretation of heritage site through new
experiential and intellectual approaches. The goal of technology is to enable people to
use digital tools, this is the target of future guiding; is to use technology, not to make
technology a substitute for guide. The tour guide can offer a professional service that
technology cannot give.
Bibliography
– Ap J. Wong K. K.F. 2001. Case study on tour guiding: professionalism, issues and
problems. Tourism Management 22 (2001) 551-563.
– Best K. (2012) Making museum tours better: understanding what a guided tour
really is and what a tour guide really does, Museum Management and Curatorship,
27:1, 35-52. To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09647775.2012.644695
– Binkhorst, E., & Den Dekker, T. (2009). Agenda for co-creation
– Tourism experience research. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management,
18, 311–327.
