Multilingual tour guides cashing in on visitor boom

China has welcomed an increasing number of foreign tourists as the country continues to promote its inbound tourism market, and tour guides who can speak English and other languages such as Spanish, Russian and Thai have been in high demand.

Unlike Chinese-speaking tour guides, many foreign language tour guides have been working independently in China and cooperating with travel agencies. For those who don't have enough connections with travel agencies, they often join newly established organizations, and there are intermediaries who help recommend more work opportunities, industry players observed.

The salary level of foreign language tour guides mainly depends on the language they speak and the number of days they lead tour groups. Salaries for tour guides who speak lesser-known languages are usually higher than for English tour guides, said Tongcheng Travel, a Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

In addition, incomes of tour guides often include basic salary and tips, and the specific income may vary depending on the quality of service and customer satisfaction, Tongcheng Travel said.

Currently, a relatively slack season for inbound travel, the average daily income for a foreign language tour guide in China stands at about 700 yuan ($96.2) to 800 yuan, and it is about 200 yuan higher than a tour guide who speaks Chinese and leads a domestic tour group, according to Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

During peak travel season in summer, their average daily income is about 1,000 yuan to 1,100 yuan, and it is difficult for many tour groups to find English-speaking tour guides as the supply falls short of demand, Tuniu said.

"In the first half of this year, demand for foreign language tour guides was higher, as a large number of foreign visitors came to China for business trips, and they also took short trips," said Zhao Linyan, business manager of Tuniu's self-operated local tour operator in Beijing.

"Demand for English-speaking tour guides has been the highest, and there is also demand for tour guides who speak Spanish and Russian," Zhao said.

She added that in April, when Thailand celebrated its annual Songkran Festival, Thai people got a long holiday off from work, and many came to China for travel. Tour guides who can speak Thai in China were in hot demand at that time.

China's inbound tourism market has recovered rapidly as the country continued to implement unilateral visa-free policies for multiple countries. This year, the number of inbound tourists is expected to rebound to over 90 percent of levels seen in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report by the China Tourism Academy.

In the first three quarters, China welcomed 950 million foreign visitors, and the figure resumed to more than 90 percent of 2019 levels. For major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, the number of foreign visitors recovered to over 75 percent of pre-pandemic levels, the report said.

Ke Zhihong, a foreign-language tour guide who has been working for more than a decade in Xiamen, Fujian province, can speak English and French. Her daily salary is about 1,000 yuan, and when providing guide services for French visitors, her income is higher, Xiamen Daily reported.

Ke said the number of foreign language tour guides at her company accounts for about one tenth of the total. This year, the number of inbound tour groups that she has received is about 30 percent higher than last year.

As China welcomes more tour groups who speak minor languages, her company will invite foreign language tour guides from other provinces and foreign language teachers at local universities to help meet the growing inbound travel demand.