Evaluation of tourist guides' roles based on guest reviews according to different travel types

Tourist guides play a significant role in the development of the tourism sector. At the same time, tourist guides are perceived as the individuals who have the most frequent interaction with tourists. Furthermore, as part of their profession, tourist guides assume various roles while being with tourists. Each role they undertake varies according to the type of tours and the tourist destination. Determining these roles is of crucial importance in terms of enhancing service quality and improving the current training of tourist guiding. Based on this, the aim of this study is to evaluate the roles assumed by tourist guides in different tourism tours. In this scope, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on a total of 2,450 online reviews from Withlocals, an online travel company that provides services with various tours and guides, particularly on ten cities among the most visited cities in Europe and five different tour types (family-friendly, shopping, gastronomy, city, and museum tours). In order to identify the roles undertaken by tourist guides in these tours, a qualitative research design known as the holistic multiple-case design method was embraced. Document analysis was used for data collection, and content analysis was employed for data analysis. According to the viewpoint of tourists, it was uncovered that the roles of being informative and hospitable are deemed the most significant among the responsibilities of tourist guides. The study revealed that the roles of tourist guides exhibited variation in accordance with the specific characteristics and requirements of different tours. As a significant outcome of the study, two novel roles, namely the advisory role and the expert role, were discerned. These recently ascertained roles are deemed to exert a substantial influence on the travel experiences and satisfaction of tourists. It is theorized that the incorporation of the identified roles, emerged as a result of this study, into guiding education would contribute to the enhancement of tourist guides' qualifications.