Travel Guides

Low pay & lowrisk
Low Risk
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Occupation snapshot

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.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

32% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

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

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
Jobs that also use this strength

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Persuasion

Quite important
Why this matters
Influencing people to change their minds or behavior through conversation, trust, and negotiation.
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Show 3 more strengths

Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 58 votes

42% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 32% 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?

View sentiment trend

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Tour and Travel Guides was $36,660 ($18 per hour).

The median annual wage for Tour and Travel Guides was 25.9% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Tour and Travel Guides' job openings is expected to rise 8.1% by 2034

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

Volume

Moderate range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 49,010 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'.

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Resources

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What people are saying (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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Job description

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

O*NET-SOC code: 39-7012.00