Also called: Tour Manager, Tour Escort
Travels with a tour group for days or weeks, managing every detail of the trip.
You meet 40 travelers at the airport in Rome and stay with them for 12 days, handling hotels, buses, guides, and lost passports. You are part historian, part entertainer, part problem solver. Many tour directors spend half the year on the road.
Tips and commissions can double base pay.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
High school diploma, about 0 years after high school. No degree required; languages, travel experience, and company training.
Ways in: On-the-job training, Certification, 4-year college. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Majors to look at: Tourism Management, History, Foreign Languages.
Growing faster than average (about 5% over 10 years).
Low risk for 10 years. Leading a group for weeks and fixing problems on the road is hands-on and personal.
Age 21+. One way to start: Apply to tour companies (EF, Globus, Trafalgar) and take their short tour director training First: The company's tour director training course (about 1–2 weeks); most want 21+
Classes: World languages, History, Geography.
Official data: O*NET occupation 39-7012.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.