After a recent court ruling in Washington D.C., the cost of being a tour guide will not be going down anytime soon. The ever increasing overhead means that tour guides must find a way to recoup those costs as quickly as possible - one way to do that is with tour guide booking software.
Court Ruling: Licensing Mandatory
Lat month's court ruling in Washington D.C. upholds the requirement for sighting guides to pay for and pass an exam to "ensure they are at least minimally qualified." The judge based his ruling on a 1902 D.C. statute that made illegal for any person to engage in or carry on any business which a license tax is imposed without first obtaining a license.
The 1902 law was challenged by a guided tour company that felt the licensing requirement is a violation of free speech and is therefore unconstitutional. After rejecting the tour company's argument, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman said that the license requirement governs tour guide conduct, not what is spoken during a tour. Like many cities, D.C. wishes to have itself portrayed in the best positive light to visitors, and it does so by testing the general knowledge of for-profit sightseeing tours.
The cost of being a tour guide in Washington D.C. is not trivial:
Sightseeing tour guides to pay $200 each to take a 100-question exam based on general knowledge of the nation's capital. Those convicted of conducting tours without a license are subject to a fine of up to $300 and a maximum of three months in jail.
Fortunately for tour operators in D.C., there are several services dedicated to training and pre-exam testing. According to the Guild of Professional Tour Guides, tour operators can attend multi-day workshops or for faster compliance one of the week-end "boot camps." Guide knowledge comes from a study of literature on the history and geographical locations of area monuments and points of interest.
The tour operator licensing requirements in D.C. are representative of most other cities, big and small, and are considered to be the price of doing business. If your tour makes use of the popular Segway personal transportation devices you may have additional licensing and training costs, as well as higher insurance premiums.
Guided Tour Booking Software
The ThunderTix plan for guided tour management software lets you assign any combination of fees, per person or by group size, to recoup overhead costs faster.
You have total control over how fees are applied. For example, you can assign fees and services charges per-person or on a per-order basis to encourage large groups to book with you and not your competition. We do not apply any fees of our own, but you may add and keep any fees you feel are necessary.
Another way to recoup costs faster with our technology is to create an urgent need to buy. ThunderTix has tools to do just that by displaying “Hurry! There are less than 5 tickets remaining" during the online booking process. These messages shown to people visiting your website increase sales velocity while reducing the dreaded cart abandonment. Ticket availability messages are proof we are committed to doing everything we can to make your tour a consistent long term success.
Not only do we help you recoup costs, we offer some of the most competitive pricing plans out there. Our guided tour booking software is priced as a flat annual license based on the number of tickets needed per year. The only cost outside of the license fee is the cost of credit card processing. Don't pay for more than you need - sign up today!