December has been a busy time for Tourism’s Tour Guiding Students in Melbourne , the Cruise Tourism Season in full swing prompted Cruise Guides Australia (CGA) to contact WAI Tourism via Penny Irons seeking “new faces” for their Guiding Team in Melbourne.
Familiarisation Tours referred to as “Ride Alongs” with an experienced Guide were planned for several students.
This enabled students to observe how a “real tour” operated as opposed to the assimilated ones completed around and about the city with their class colleagues.
Penny, who has worked with Cruise Guides Australia for many years, was selected to supervise and train these students on a series of tours from the Shore Excursions Programs of the Diamond Princess, a ship with some 2,800 passengers.
The first two trainees did a tour to Ballarat, where the weather conditions were anything but pleasant and even included a slight dusting of snow, these conditions made their tasks more complex than usual.
Further student training was undertaken during “The Princess’s” next Melbourne port day and all have since been offered work.
One student is pursuing walking tours in the CBD, the others opting to do a broader range of tours.
They are now working as Guides and with very good feed- back from CGA, and we understand even receiving tips from some of their clients/tourists.
Well done Penny and students!
