Travel Passport Visa Center

 THE COMPANY


Travel Passport Visa Center is a full service passport and visa expeditor.  They are licensed and authorized by the U.S. Department of State to expedite passport processing. They own federally issued expediting slots that allow them to bypass standard passport wait times and have passports processed in a single business day. Their main corporate office is located in Delray Beach, FL and they process all the passports at all the agencies around the US. They also
work on a daily basis with the embassies and consulates of foreign countries for expedited visa services that are processed in hours rather than weeks.

Travel Passport Visa Center is officially authorized by the US Department of State. They have over 20 years of experience in expediting travel documents and trusted by hundreds of leading Fortune 500 companies, cruise lines, and tour operators. Their website is completely secure and the process is fully confidential.

The perfect greeting to start sightseeing tours

Your method of greeting your clients is very important for a tour guide. The client gets a direct first impression of you and perhaps even of your city, from this initial greeting. It is not as simply as a basic introduction. A tour guide should consider timing, boby language and the surroundings in which to present a customized greeting to your travel clients.

Pick Up Location
First, consider the pick-up location. When you meet your clients at the airport, it is usually a long-drive to the city centre. In that case, a tour guide shall prepare enough content to introduce themselves. Besides the basic facts of the city, you may talk some more about local culture, customs, upcoming events etc. Choose some fun topics, so that the travelers do not get bored after the flight. When you meet at the railway station, bus station, or cruise port, the driving routes are different from each other. It is best that a tour guide combines their prepared greeting with the sights along the way.

Another common meeting point is the hotel lobby where your clients are staying. This can be very broad and you may not know every hotel in the city. Do some homework before meeting the client. Know the distance from their hotel to the first sight, and the route you are going to cover.

Time of the Day
Timing is also a consideration of your greeting speech length. When a tour guide picks up clients at day time to start some sightseeing tours, you are often expected to talk more. Your clients are excited to hear about this new place. If you meet travelers at night time, you talk less and give your clients time to rest. Save the best for the following morning when they are refreshed. If even later, it’s a mid-night arrival- perhaps ask them are they tired, if yes, will you keep silent completely? No, it is recommended to give a brief greeting. With just one or two sentences, your clients will appreciate your greeting in a strange place.


So how do you start your greeting speech, with a big smile and welcome or something extraordinary and eye-catching. Let us know some of your techniques?

Tour Guide Industry trends & Events Update

Here are a selection of tour guide and sightseeing tours trends

First Tour Guide in Xitang (China)
Xitang, the thousand-year old town located in eastern China's Zhejiang Province had just started to develop tourism in that year.
"People asked who that girl was and why she was always shouting with a loudspeaker, followed by a group of strangers," she said, recalling the first year of her career life as a tour guide when reporters from CRI interviewed her on Monday.
The reaction was understandable since before 1997 only peddlers who collected used bottles and old newspaper used loudspeaker to attract new business. Tour Guide details

Get paid to travel (Malaysia)
How many of us dream of having a fun job where we get to travel to interesting places, make new international friends and get a healthy sum of money for doing so?
"But overall, it's a fun, rewarding and an eye-opening job, so I'd give it a try if I were you!"

Australia's most eccentric tour guides (Australia)
Sometimes on a tour, it's not about the where or the what, but the who. A good, entertaining tour guide can make all the difference, and some of them become legends in their own right.

Responsible Tourism Day (Worldwide)
WTM World Responsible Tourism Day, the only global day of action of its kind, is being supported by the UNWTO and leading industry associations. The day is vital – for business, for profitability and for our planet. It means taking care of a world that we seek to promote, preserving our heritage and cultures and taking into account the views and needs of local communities.

How Search Is Key To Booking Travel Plans (Worldwide)
The majority of personal travelers still plan to travel just as much or more throughout 2009, compared with 2008. Booking behavior has changed, however. Travelers will shop around more and wait for the best deal before they book.

Best Tour Guide Blogs in the world - Top 5

From over 115 enteries around the globe - a panel of judges from OurExplorer have selected what they believe are the best blogs owned and update by Tour Guides.

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing your local wisdom with travelers around the world.

No.1
Blog Israel Tours
By Tour Guide Jerusalem city – Shmuel Browns

No. 2
Blog Forever Barcelona
By Tour Guide Barcelona – Marta Laurent Veciana

No. 3
Blog - China Tours
By Tour Guide Chongqing – Legend Kung

No. 4
Blog – Israel Photos
By Tour Guide Jerusalem area – Gershon Ferency

No. 5
Blog Insights of a Chameleon
By Tour Guide Dublin – Robert McElroy

The team at OurExplorer admire the dedication of each and every tour guide who maintains a blog with the goal of helping visitors gain insight into a new city before arrival. Well done.
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How Tour Guides can spot unwelcomed guests

Last week, we mentioned that there are often tour guides in special-themed venues. These tour guides are specialized in their specific guiding area. Such tour guides may include museum guides, historical residence guide, and theme-park guide etc. The difference is that they only guide in a certain place for limited time. Some places provide a venue tour guide for free (included in the entrance fee). Some are pay-to-hire services.

If you are a venue guide that some client pays extra to listen to you, and there are hang-on tourists with your group, what would you do? First things first, bear in mind that your clients are your priority and should not be made to feel awkward. It is usually understandable with some people hang-on. Face and talk to your clients. Attend to their questions. When your clients have your full attention, they won’t mind with some more followers.

However, if there are too many hang-ons, or some people affect your group in a negative way, you should point out that this is a private group to them. You may talk with those people separately at a convenient time. Inform them how they can find and pay for a venue guide like you. Be polite, and do not shout to them in front of others. Even though they are not your direct client, they are visitors of your tourist venue.
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Tour Guiding in special themed scenic venues

Sometimes in the tour itinerary, there are locations with specific themes i.e. toys of various decades, movie production theme park, ancient rock painting exhibition, earthquake museum. These places have unique characteristics or styles. When a tour guide is showing around such scenic spots, it is recommended to fit into the scene.


For example, in a movie production theme park, visitors may see scene reproduction, super star signatures, movie-making tools etc. It is more of an entertaining place, rather than for education. Introduce the fun spots, point out the different from what’s seen in the movie. Encourage clients to try interactive devices as this will get their energy levels up.


However, if it’s an earthquake museum, or other memorial places of harsh history, the guiding attitude shall be totally different. You are not expected to give jokes in such atmosphere. Stick to the facts, and share the sorrow and hope for a better future.


In some special-themed spots, they provide their own tour guides. These guides are often more familiar with the place and exhibits. You may invite the spot guides to guide for the place, to make an even better experience for your clients. But as a professional guide, you still need to have certain knowledge of the place. Get prepared for the various questions from your client. The more they get answered, the better experience they will have.

Have you a favourite themed location in your city you can share with OurExplorer ?

Learn as a Tour Guide not to miss your client start time

As a professional tour guide, you have communicated with your client back and forth. You have designed a perfect itinerary specially for your client. You have agreed on all the schedule and payments. Now it’s time of the tour day. Do not miss your client at the very beginning of the tour by being late for the start time. It will often annoy the client. And sometimes even affect the tour schedule. Here are some tips and reminders for you.

If your meeting place is at airport or cruise port, check with the flight/cruise arrival on the day. As a tour guide, you may have picked up clients for hundreds of times. But it’s recommended to check and make sure. Do not take it for granted. Flights may delay or cancel, or arrive early in some cases. Better not have the client wait for you, even though the flight arrives earlier. They have limited time in your city and prefer no waste. So it’s worth a quick call to confirm the arrival time. Same with cruise and other transportation meeting place.

In most cases you meet your client at their hotel lobby. So on OurExplorer, this is set as the default meeting place. How could you miss a client in a hotel lobby? Well, it may happen. Call the hotel to confirm your client’s reservation. Avoid going to a different hotel of the same brand. Clarify the meeting lobby with your client. In Shanghai, Grand Hyatt has a front desk on the 1st floor and lobby on the 54th floor. Shangri-la has two adjoining building thus two lobbies - just be careful of these potential points of confusion.

Sometimes the client would like to meet at a public place. As a tour guide, you need to make clear of the exact meeting point. It shall be with clear signs and away from the crowds. Otherwise, it’s hard for you to identify your clients, vice verse.

Thanks to the invention of mobile. If tour guides and clients have exchanged mobile numbers, it’s less possible that you miss each other. Even if you can’t dial internationally, short message may help. First impression makes a difference. So don’t be late, and start the tour without missing your clients.

Great tour gives you a great client testimonial and rating.

Getting Clients to contact you - First Impressions critical

OurExplorer received some client feedback recently. I would like to share with you tour guides so that you know how a client selects his/her guide to contact and book.

Client Feedback Email

[From: Erika Rosenberg
To: Dave Cunningham
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 2:22 AM
Subject: OurExplorer: What do you think of OurExplorer.com?

Hi,

Feedback - I love that they write about themselves so you get a real feel for who they are. One thing, you might want to mention to guides as at least for me, I chose the guides that wrote more about themselves. The guides that only wrote a sentence or two I passed over. Hopefully that helps!]

Now you know besides your photo and license (which are visual proofs), clients do value your self introduction i.e. "About Me" , "Interests" etc . This builds up their first impression of you and determines whether they email for a tour enquiry.

How to build up a good self-introduction? Here are some tips.

- Introduce your personal background (where are you from, how are you associated with your city etc.)
- Introduce your guiding experience (education received, license acquired, expertise in guiding, what your clients may expect of you, etc.)
- Introduce your city/country (a brief intro of your location, as travels may know little about it.)
- Express welcome and encourage contacting for more info.


Here is tour guide Dina in Israel with a good self introduction.

Former Residence of Famous People - Tour Guide Tips

Most cities have a history related with famous people (or even infamous people). Their former residence and working place are often turned into a tourist attraction or memorial place. When tour guides are showing around a residence site, or historic house, a good knowledge of the resident’s whole life is a real plus.

Back to the guiding practice, it’s recommended to combine the objects seen with stories of its owner. Why is it displayed there? What’s the importance of it? How was it associated with the people who used to live here? Is it still in use or never seen in daily life? As we mentioned before, guiding is not lecturing. So this is not class of a historic person. It would be good to raise interests of visitors and they may explore more by themselves. Interaction with your clients is also encouraged.

Also pay attention to the environment, the connections between different rooms, the views from windows, etc. Is there garden or lake outside? Any special things about them? Notice the fire protection and safety. Some residence may be very small for group visitors.

Besides the past, introduce the current situation of historic buildings. Do they take on events of special exhibitions nowadays? Research or study on the residence or the famous people? Donations welcomed for the reservation? As a local tour guide, you may contribute to the local community while entertaining your clients.
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Tour Guide Prize for Training correctly

So why do I need to spend so much time training as a tour guide I hear you all say?

Reason = You will then get client testimonials like this one for Tour Guide Mohamed in Luxor.

Client testimonial - March 2009
"We really enjoyed our day in Luxor with Mohamed. This was our first vacation out of the U.S. and we were a little nervous about leaving the tour group and going out on our own (also, a little nervous about hiring someone off the internet). Mohamed had quickly responded to all our questions by e-mail before our trip and he met us in the lobby of the cruise ship the morning of our tour and he was very helpful. We had to change plans because of flight schedules and make it one long day of site seeing instead of two days. He was very accommodating about our change in plans and we were able to see about five or six additional sites that the group didn’t see, including the Luxor Museum and the Tombs of the Nobles which were two of my favorite places. The price to hire him was about the same as the rate to go with the group (with the exception of all the extra tickets for the additional sites) so it was really a bargain! He also connected us up with a very good tour guide in Cairo.

We would highly recommend Mohamed (5 stars), he was very professional and a lot of fun. I would also recommend the benefits of a private tour guide but make sure they are certified and have the recommendations of a company like yours. We did learn the difference in a certified Egyptologist guide with reliable transportation and just a local when we were in Sakkara.

Thanks for helping us with a great experience in Egypt!

Gerald and Pat Cook"

Let OurExplorer know of any specific areas of training you require?

What to talk about in Museum Tours

Galleries and museums are interesting places for some people while boring for others. The collections displayed usually take up most of the tour guide’s commentary. Besides that, there are more to cover on a museum tour.

The museum building itself. Many museums have an architecture that is specially designed for its collection. For example, Shanghai museum is in the shape of ancient Chinese bronze ware “Ding”. The architecture has also embedded the traditional Chinese “heaven and earth” concept with its round top and square base. The museum holds traditional Chinese arts and is known for its ancient bronze collection.

The history of the museum. Some sights are turned into a museum with its historic values. Like the Palace Museum in Beijing, it is known as the Forbidden City which was home to Chinese emperors in Ming and Qing dynasties. The British Museum has a history dated back to 18th century.

The fun and entertaining stories of a museum. The tour guide is encouraged to add interesting elements to a museum tour, so that people can enjoy more while learning. Famous people that visited the museum, movies shot related to the museum (Le fantôme du Louvre, Night at the Museum etc.). Yet be award not to go over the line. In the commentary, the tour guide shall still stick to facts, especially when introducing the collections.


We would love to hear from you and share
What’s your most memorable museum experience as a tour guide?

Smile Tour Guide - Your client is photo crazy

Photography and travel go hand in hand. Landscape, portrait, architecture, animals and plants… there are so many things to be shot on the tour. Some people do not take photos at all, but most travelers do. People tend to take more photos when visiting a new place/city. They are not necessarily photographers, but photo–lovers in various ways. As a frequent visitor, tour guides can assist photo-lovers with greater production.

Identify what type of photo-lover your client is and treat differently. Is she a typical tourist, taking photos of all famous scenic spots? Then a tour guide shall introduce the best-known spots, where he can find a nicer angel or a better view. For instance, in Baryon Temple of Siem Reap, Cambodian tour guides usually tell an interesting place where tourists can take a photo of “kissing the Buddha”. If the tourist wants to take things with their own observation, leave some free time at each stop. Let he explore by himself. If you are guiding an expert photographer, you probably leave them more space to shot what they want.

Do mind the tour arrangement though. Some photo-lovers may be so absorbed in one place that they forget the following schedules. A tour guide shall take care of the time. Kindly remind your clients of the original plan. If they would like to make changes, agree with the practical adjustment. But if such photo-lover is in a group with other travelers, you shall remind them of the time and carry on with the next destination.

Do remind your clients of no-photography moments. Some museums and art galleries forbid photo-taking. In some regions, local people are strongly against being captured in the photo. In activities like whitewater rafting, it is not safe to take pictures and may cause damage to the camera.

Let your client be creative. Do not try to be a master who knows where all good pictures are. A tour guide can know every corner of the city, but photo-taking is somewhat personal. You can’t dominate traveler’s perspective. Moreover, there are moving pictures and unpredictable moments. So suggest, but do not manipulate. Let your clients enjoy their own photos of the tour. Happy Exploring!

Tour Guide Tips for On-site Presentations

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you all.

When a tour guide stops to introduce a scenic spot, here are some tips for a better presentation. Besides the spot introduction you communicate to your clients (which shall be knowledge preparation in advance), your on-site control matters.

Choose a place capable of holding all your clients. Then you can present with less disturbance. If you stop at entrance or narrow sidewalk, your group will need to make way for passers-by. Both your clients and you are less focused. If you have to stop at such location, make your words brief and elaborate in the following places.

Start your introduction after your clients all gathered in front of you. This is to avoid people missing your major points. Also, it saves your efforts to repeat same information. You may raise your voice a bit higher to catch the attention of all.

In small-space popular sites like temples or museums, it often happens that several tour groups stop at similar time. Try to keep a distance from other tour guides, so that your clients can hear you clearly. Leave your back to the other guides and make yourself heard. But remember, do not shout.

When your stop is outdoors, take notice of the natural environment. It’s ideal to have clear weather without wind. But these elements are not in the control of a tour guide. What can you do then? Find a sheltered stop when possible. Do not let your clients facing the sun (makes dizzy and turn away). Have your clients stand downwind, and your voice can be carried by the wind.

Small details make big difference. What do you feel is most important to rember during an on-site presentation?

Tour Guide Transportation Choices for a City Tour

The discussion here is how to choose the best transportation means between scenic spots when doing a city tour.

The most common choice is a pre-booked vehicle, either it’s a coach, a van or a car. Choose dynamically according to the number of travelers and their specific needs. During time on the way, tour guide shall appropriately introduce scenery along the road or some local culture/life. When communicating with clients, do turn back to make eye contact and to address their interest. The tour guide needs paying attention to their own safety if standing on the vehicle to talk. Do not stand talking while the vehicle starts/stops.

For individual travelers, tour guide has a wider range of selection for transportation. Taxi, metro, bus, etc., the guide may choose the most efficient means considering distance and budget. One thing in mind, try avoiding peak hours in the city. Travelers only want to experience the local way, not to get jammed or crowded in public transportations.

A tour guide can also recommend unique local transportation which travelers won’t experience in their daily life. For instance, Tuk-tuk in Bangkok, jinrick-shaw in Phnom Penh, ferry in Shanghai, etc. They are active transportation tools, but a special local experience for travelers as well.

There’s also another transportation choice. We sometimes call it “Bus 11”, well, not necessarily a tool. It’s to visit with one’s own legs. Walking tour, as people are more familiar with. City walking tour has high requirements of a tour guide. The guide shall be well prepared for route selection, combination of spots along walking, speed and physical condition of travelers, resting points and toilets etc. But above all, walking is probably the best way to understand a city.