Redesigning The Compensation For Tour Guides Of A Travel Agency

As defined in Regulations on Administration of Tour Guides, tour guides refer to those who have obtained a Tour Guide Certificate according to these Regulations, and accept appointment of a travel agency to provide tourists with guiding, introducing and other related tourism services. Tour guides are the professional and technical personnel working on the front line of the whole tourism industry; they are the personnel who offer the tourists direct services in their travelling and who also keep the most frequent contact with the tourists. The quality of their services will have a direct influence on both the tourists’direct evaluation of their whole travelling experience, and the tourists’direct appraisal of the travel agencies, tourism destinations, and tourism industry. Therefore, the quality of tour guides is of vital importance. However, as the current compensation design for tour guides in Aba Prefecture is not quite reasonable, it leads to the following vicious cycle:the lack of guarantee for tour guides’basic needs, the damage to tour guides’professional image, the loss of the tourists’interests, and the damage to the image of travel agencies, travel destinations and tourism industry.Based on field work, performance-linked pay theory, work-sharing theory and two-factor theory, this essay analyzes the income of tour guides and the compensation structure of tour guides under the current compensation system For Tour Guides Of A Travel Agency and points out where the problems lie and what negative effects they produce.On the basis of the analysis above, the essay redesigns the compensation structure for tour guides of A Travel Agency and suggests that tourist compensation should contain the basic salary, which can guarantee the tour guides’basic needs and embody their labor values, the performance-linked pay, which can reflect the performance level of their work, the legal commissions, which allow the tour guides to share their effectiveness and promote job enthusiasm, the welfares, which can help to strengthen tour guides’ sense of professional identity and inspire their passion for work; and the tips, which can increase their income and boosts the beneficial cycle of improving their tour guide service. Finally, the essay makes feasibility analysis of the new compensation structure of tour guides.