ABSTRACT

Türkiye aims to host 80 million visitors in 2028 and become one of the three most visited countries in the world. Tour guiding services may contribute to achieving Türkiye’s goals in tourism. Tour guides’ competencies affect tourist satisfaction and become criteria for employers. However, there is only limited identification of the competencies that employers take into account when employing tour guides. There is a need for investigation that takes tourists’ countries into account instead of assuming that employers’ expectations are homogeneous. To fill the research gap, this study determines American tour operators’ criteria when employing tour guides. Because The United States of America (USA) is one of the countries that export tourists the most in international tourism mobility. In this context, Turkish tourism agenda develops projections to host more tourists from the USA. Therefore, a YouTube video was selected as the data source in which Rick Steves, an American tour operator exporting more than 30 thousand Americans to European countries and Türkiye each year, identifies his criteria in tour guide employment. According to the findings, the competencies that tour guides should possess for Rick Steves are grouped under three themes: Personal Characteristics of the Guide, Roles of the Guide, and Relations with the Group. The findings also reveal that it is not rational to expect guides to have all the competencies identified in the literature. Thus, investigations on a country basis provide specific results regarding tour guides’ competencies. The study concludes with recommendations for the stakeholders.