Guiding the Future: Lessons from the Business of Guiding Workshop

On 28 and 29 September, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism hosted a workshop on “The Business of Guiding”. The in-person event was held in Caledon, however, they also made it available online to those who registered. I attended most of it via online, while SA AIA was represented in person on Day 1 by Marie-Louise Kellett.

Many topics were covered over the course of the two days, from adventure guiding to food and wellness tourism to how to use AI in your business, and many others. Some of the topics (and speakers) were more interesting and relevant than others.

Marie-Louise represented the adventure industry well and gave an interesting presentation. There were some very enlightening stats, such as: 40% of travellers worldwide are now adventure-based; 67% of all travellers are open to adventure-based tourism. Small scale, sustainable, luxury and bespoke adventure packages are the fastest growing in popularity with tourists.

Marie-Louise, representing SA AIA, was also part of a panel discussion with representatives from FGASA, CTGA, CATHSSETA and the NFTGA. It was interesting to hear the perspectives from all sides of guiding, including the updates to guiding qualifications and how all these organisations overlap and can help each other.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the afternoon sessions on Day 1 of the workshop, but they covered the topics of sustainable, food and wellness tourism. From the notes provided, all these sectors are increasingly popular, and Cape Town in particular has become a hotspot for wellness and food tourism. With the increasing global awareness of human impact on nature, the need for sustainable, community driven, eco-friendly tourism is growing and is also in greater demand.

While Day 1 covered more of the actual guiding, and types of guiding, aspects of tourism, Day 2 got into the real business side of things. Afsana Khan was the speaker for most of the day and covered everything including types of tourists (budget-wise and generational), marketing, using AI, and how to properly price your tours. She also demonstrated using some of the tools and programmes one can use to create content to market yourself, including CapCut for videos, Chat GPT to create itineraries and Canva to make digital

posters.

Some of what I found most interesting was the different types of travellers, and also how prospective tourists conduct their research online. Some of the differences between travellers of different generations may seem intuitive or obvious, but it was nice to know that what I thought I knew was in fact backed by research!

Some highlights:

• Millennials (1981 – 1996) are more likely to use Facebook and Instagram social media, read lots of reviews, research heavily beforehand, like value for money, but will pay extra for a unique, meaningful experience.

• Gen Z (1997 – 2012) get their inspiration from Tik Tok and Reels, are more environmentally conscious, expect instant replies via WhatsApp or DM’s on socials, and are looking for interactive/immersive activities.

• Gen X (1965 – 1980) do a lot of research beforehand, use Facebook a lot, can be more family-orientated (travelling with their kids), like good value for money, like experiences appropriate across the ages.

• Boomers (1946 – 1964) want comfort, safety and reliability. They prefer to book through agents and communicate via emails or phone calls; they still use print media to research their travels.

Another, very educational part of her presentations was how people now research their travels and how the search engines, and AI, have changed. The “old school” method was to type in a few keywords, and the Search Engine Optimisation algorithms would do their thing and churn out websites. Now, however, it’s more of a question/answer scenario. AI summarises the internet and gives the best answer to a question and provides content. For example, previously people would type in the search “hiking Table Mountain”. Now, people ask “what is the best hiking trail on Table Mountain?” Essentially, SEO keywords are out, content with specific answers are in! Time to adapt website copy and your social media content accordingly.