Israel Tour

Psalm 48: 1 – 14

Israel tour

A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

1 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised iIn the city of our God, in His holy mountain. 2 Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 3 God Is in her palaces; He Is known as her refuge. 4 For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together. 5 They saw it, and so they marveled; They were troubled, they hastened away. 6 Fear took hold of them there, and pain, as of a woman in birth pangs, 7 As when You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. 8 As we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God: God will establish it forever. Selah 9 We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness, in the midst of Your temple. 10 According to Your name, O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. 11 Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Your judgments. 12 Walk about Zion and go all around her. Count her towers; 13 Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; That you may tell it to the generation following. 14 For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.

I know I am bias, but I must state that our church runs the best tour trips to Israel. For over 30 years has been taking fellow believers to the Promised Land. I believe one of our biggest blessings is that our Lord matched us up with an awesome tour business. The individuals who work at this company are not only our contractors but have also become our friends.

Part of running a successful tour company has nothing to do with business at all, but the people involved. A hugely important aspect of running a business in the tourism sector is having people on your team who will inspire travelers and locals to come back and tell their friends.

Because it takes the right kind of person to be a tour guide, we’ve made note of some of the qualities that make for a successful guide.

1. Strong Communication Skills

Being a guide is all about having strong communication skills. It’s ok to be a quiet person, but if you have to communicate with new people on a daily basis, you just have to be able to do it well. On a basic level guides should be great at projecting their voices across a group and be able to do so in a clear and easy to understand way. On an interpersonal level, being great at knowing how to communicate well with people is a huge asset.

2. Personable & Outgoing

This skill takes communication to the next level. Guides shouldn’t just be able to communicate well, they must be great conversationalists with outgoing personalities; what we call the “Star of the Show” quality, which isn’t something you can teach. There can be a bit of social awkwardness when a new group of strangers show up, and a guide should be able to break that immediately to help people feel comfortable talking to each other and their guide. This ensures later they feel open to add comments or add questions along the way.

3. A Memory Like a Steal Trap

Tour guides need to retain a lot of stats and facts when walking people around a city- but they also need to be a great storyteller. Guides simply can’t get the information wrong, spend extra time trying to remember it or spend the whole tour reading from a piece of paper. Their memory should be so good, that it seems as if they’ve just always known these facts when they recite them.

4. Improvisational Skills

We’re not demanding your guides put on an improv show, but the ability to change things up on the fly and play off the energy of the group is important. Attendees will likely have additional questions or comments along the way. These things shouldn’t throw your guide for a loop, they should be able to adjust their script as needed. Sticking too closely to it, could end up making your guests feel like there’s no room for them to say anything at all.

5. Just Enough Enthusiasm

Just as guides will often play off the energy of the group, your attendees will likely feed off the energy of their guide. Your guide has been enthusiastic about the thing they’re talking about, but not so enthusiastic that they fail to sound genuine.