Domestic tourism no longer needs tour guides!
Over the past couple of days, a friend of mine, Mr. A, who has worked as a tour guide for nearly 10 years, is preparing to switch careers completely.
Jinlvjun was very surprised by his decision.
Because Mr. A is absolutely an excellent tour guide practitioner. He has an outgoing personality, is generous to others, and is articulate. He not only has outstanding professional abilities and a solid foundation in explanation, but is also a bilingual tour guide proficient in both Chinese and English.
No matter from which perspective you judge, Mr. A is a top-tier talent in the tour guide industry. How could such an outstanding person suddenly decide to change careers?
"This is just the superficial impression others see," Mr. A said helplessly. The reason he chose to leave is not that he can't bear the hardship or the tiredness, but that he has seen a cruel truth clearly:
The domestic tourism industry no longer needs the traditional role of tour guides.
01
"You know what? I haven't received a single group since July," Mr. A said. Since May, the number of groups he has taken has been very limited. In the past, at this time of year, information from travel agencies looking for tour guides would flood into every business group, and he never worried about having no groups to lead.
However, this year is completely different. There are very few messages in the groups from travel agencies looking for tour guides.
Occasionally, a message from a travel agency looking for a tour guide pops up, and before he has time to read it carefully, it is instantly snatched up by other tour guides.
Mr. A joked self-deprecatingly that in the past, he would pick and choose the groups he took: groups with bad itineraries, groups with difficult clients, groups with too low prices, groups with too much shopping... he would not take them at all. But this year, he takes whatever groups the travel agency offers, and there is no time to pick and choose.
How intense is the involution in the tour guide industry now? If a Chengdu-based travel agency posts an urgent task at 6 p.m. that requires a tour guide to lead a temporary group at Kuanzhai Alley at 7 p.m., within less than half an hour, there will definitely be a tour guide showing up at the designated location without any complaints.
The tour guides who get the groups then fiercely compete on price and working hours. In principle, a tour guide's daily working time should not exceed 8 hours, but in reality, the working hours are getting longer and longer, while the fees are getting lower and lower.
"The last group I took paid only 400 yuan a day, but I worked more than 12 hours with no overtime pay," Mr. A said with a laugh. Two years ago, for a group of the same standard, he could earn at least 600 yuan a day, with overtime pay calculated separately.
He revealed to Jinlvjun that he has had a monthly income of around 5,000 yuan for three consecutive months. "With my abilities and qualifications, I find it somewhat unacceptable to have this income level now. It is not enough to support myself, nor can it make me feel professional dignity."
Mr. A sighed, watching many travel agencies' businesses perform poorly this summer. They cannot attract enough tourists to form groups, so tour guides naturally have no work to do. Instead of waiting for the inevitable decline, it is better to find another way out.
02
Is the claim that the tourism industry no longer needs tour guides an alarmist statement?
Faced with Jinlvjun's question, Mr. A asked bluntly in return: "Would you look for a tour guide when you travel?" Jinlvjun was stunned for a moment and then shook his head awkwardly. Why? Because everything a tour guide can do, you can do it yourself.
AI assists with itinerary planning, booking transportation and accommodation on OTA platforms is familiar and easy, urban sightseeing relies on ride-hailing apps, local life platforms cover food, drinks and entertainment, and even the most core function of tour guides—scenic spot explanation—has now been directly replaced by various free online explanation services.
In this case, what value do tour guides still have to exist?
Worse still, over the past years, tour guides have been deeply tied to travel agencies, mainly surviving on the tour groups recruited by the latter. But now, the business of travel agencies has begun to collapse.
Jinlvjun previously wrote clearly that this summer, the business volume of 90% of domestic travel agencies plummeted. On one hand, the number of domestic tourist trips is still rising rapidly; on the other hand, the business volume of travel agencies has crashed.
The domestic tourism industry is still booming, but the group tour business model of travel agencies has long failed to keep up with the needs of the public, which in turn makes tour guides who depend on travel agencies for survival struggle to make a living.
Even more fatal is that, just like travel agencies, the tour guide industry also has a serious problem of oversupply.
Data from the National Tourism Supervision and Service Platform shows that as of August 2024, the number of people holding valid tour guide certificates in China is about 650,000. According to industry estimates, about 300,000 to 400,000 of them are front-line tour guides leading groups.
When fewer and fewer people look for travel agencies to book groups, and when tour guides are no longer a necessity for mass tourism, the demise of this profession is doomed.
03
In 2026, is the tour guide profession really beyond saving?
Jinlvjun interviewed many senior tour guide practitioners. Although most of them are pessimistic about the industry they are engaged in, one view is recognized by all: It is not that the tourism industry no longer needs tour guides, but that it no longer needs traditional tour guides.
"Traditional tour guides" are more like "itinerary coordinators" or "on-trip service staff". The services they provide to tourists are very easy to be replaced, and tourists can complete them efficiently by themselves.
In fact, tourists' demand for tour guides still exists at present, but what they need more are "new-type tour guides".
A "new-type tour guide" must have irreplaceable unique skills that tourists cannot complete on their own.
What types of tour guides are likely to become "new-type tour guides"? For example: tour guides with a stable source of customers.
The "Pareto Principle" (80/20 rule) is very obvious in the tour guide industry. Even against the backdrop of the overall downturn in the tour guide industry this year, there are still a group of veteran tour guides who keep leading groups and earning a lot of money. Most of them have been deeply involved in the industry for many years and have their own stable travel agency partners, and they are even a community of shared interests.
The groups received by these travel agencies are only provided to their cooperating veteran tour guides, who are very familiar with the habits and needs of the travel agencies. The cooperation between the two sides is extremely stable, and they share the most lucrative cake in the tourism industry together.
Tour guides with unique skills. The most typical example is foreign language tour guides, especially tour guides who are proficient in "Chinese + English + a rare language".
Nowadays, "Chinese + English" is just a basic configuration, and such bilingual tour guides are everywhere in the market. However, tour guides who master "Chinese + English + a rare language" are extremely scarce. In the final analysis, the threshold for learning rare languages is very high, and the supply of such talents is very limited. With the rapid expansion of the scale of inbound tourism in China, the number of such tour guides cannot achieve explosive growth in the short term, making them highly sought-after in the industry.
Taking the Beijing inbound tourism market as an example, the service fee of a rare language tour guide can reach as high as 1,500-2,500 yuan per day in the peak season, and even so, the supply still cannot meet the demand.
Tour guides with personal IPs. This is one of the most familiar ways for tour guides to break through the industry in the past two years. A large number of traditional tour guides have successfully created their personal IPs and become internet-famous tour guides by relying on "exquisite explanation skills + outstanding personal charm".
Xiaohei Zhuming, Mount Putuo Xiaoshuai, Xi'an Bingdan, Xiamen Abo, Mount Tai Juanjie and others are now internet-famous tour guides with millions or tens of millions of fans across all online platforms.
Tourists are keen to hire them as tour guides, not only to get top-level explanation services, but also to obtain the premium brought by their personal IPs. After all, hiring an internet-famous tour guide to provide explanations is more or less something worth showing off on WeChat Moments, providing full emotional value.
"Tour guides with special talents can really get groups very easily," Mr. A clearly remembered that a couple of days ago, a travel agency was in a hurry to find him and asked if he knew how to do Baduanjin?
It turned out that an inbound tourist group specifically asked for a tour guide who could lead them in Baduanjin. These foreigners are actually more interested in Chinese Kung Fu, but they clearly know that they can't learn a few moves in just a few days in China.
However, they discovered from TikTok that young Chinese people are now practicing a new "Chinese Kung Fu" called "Baduanjin", which they can get started with in half an hour, and can master it proficiently with a little practice. When they return to their home countries, they can show it off in front of their friends and get a lot of likes on social media.
"Unfortunately, I really can't do it, and I missed this opportunity for nothing," Mr. A smiled bitterly. The logic of the current industry is very clear: If you don't have stable resources, are not scarce, have no unique skills, and don't have your own IP, there is basically no need to persist in this industry. Switching careers directly is the best strategy.
04
Jinlvjun wrote an article a couple of days ago, discussing the phenomenon that the official requires travel agencies to be equipped with 3 full-time tour guides, but it has been collectively resisted by travel agencies and some tour guides.
The original intention of the state to introduce this policy is to protect the interests of the tour guide group.
However, travel agencies refuse to employ 3 full-time tour guides, because currently tour guides simply cannot create more value for them.
A friend from a travel agency put forward an interesting view: If you want travel agencies to sincerely employ 3 full-time tour guides, these tour guides must be "tour guide + X" talents. This "X" can be any skill, as long as it can help travel agencies generate more benefits.
The problem is that 80% of the tour guides on the market now are just "traditional tour guides" without any "X" added value.
Veteran tour guides who are still hesitating whether to continue to persist, and new tour guides who are considering whether to enter the industry—these two types of people must think clearly: can they find their own "X" added value in the next 1-2 years?
If you are sure, join; if you are not sure, leave as soon as possible.
In 2026, with the major reshuffling of the travel agency industry, the tour guide industry will surely usher in a subversive transformation.
This is also a long process of industry clearance. At least half of the tour guides will be eliminated, and the remaining ones are the real elites of this industry.
"I feel that I am no longer able to learn new skills," Mr. A said after meditating for a long time. Leaving the tour guide industry, although there is regret, there is no regret. Perhaps in other industries, he can seize new opportunities.
As for more tour guide friends, have you found your own "X" added value?
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Jinlv Web", author: Chen Jie tigereat, published with authorization from 36Kr.