Travel Guides

Moderate Risk
43%

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Vote Comments (6)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
44%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
42%
(Moderate Risk, Based on 56 votes)
Average: 43%
LABOR DEMAND *
GROWTH
9.5%
by year 2033
WAGES
$36,060
or $17.34 per hour
Volume
46,760
as of 2023

Employment data isn't available specifically for this occupation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so we are using the data from Tour and Travel Guides.

SUMMARY
What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.9/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

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Calculated automation risk

44% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Social Perceptiveness

  • Persuasion

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

  • Negotiation

  • Originality

User poll

42% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 44% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Travel Guides will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Tour and Travel Guides' job openings is expected to rise 9.5% by 2033

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Tour and Travel Guides' was $36,060, or $17 per hour

'Tour and Travel Guides' were paid 25.0% lower than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 46,760 people employed as 'Tour and Travel Guides' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 3 thousand people are employed as 'Tour and Travel Guides'.

Job description

Plan, organize, and conduct long-distance travel, tours, and expeditions for individuals and groups.

SOC Code: 39-7012.00

Resources

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Comments (6)

Leave a comment
Teri (Low)
29 Jul 2025 00:40
For an eco-tourism business, you kind of need someone to guide people around the different waterways and interact with the guests
Yasin
03 Nov 2024 09:11
I think AI can assist the guide with certain tasks, but all of them cannot be replaced by AI. As we know tourists love stories, AI cannot exactly replace storytelling skills of a human. So yeah, it can automate certain tasks and assist the guide, but it's unlikely to replace the guide itself.
SJM (Low)
10 Oct 2024 02:29
I'm ultimately unconcerned as long as the travel industry maintains a healthy high standard for guides and interpreters. Humans inherently love and need storytelling, and to hear from other humans. If guiding standards stay high, keeping focus on how to design and deliver tour content, and how to communicate with clients (i.e. through interpretive communication), the field will be safe from automation and AI. Should those standards dip, like I see them doing so in some regions (i.e. Korea, where the gov't has too much power over the industry), we'll be at greater risk.
Franco (Highly likely)
26 May 2024 17:09
Cost reduction
BF (Moderate)
03 Nov 2022 03:08
Robots Would be better informed about the areas around them and would have more information than humans.
Sarah (Highly likely)
26 Jun 2019 20:12
Robots are now becoming assistants for travelers to learn about cities. I think this experiment is now being done in Japan. That's something a robot would do.
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