Online Tour Guide Certification — Self-Paced Video Program
What is a Tour Guide?
Delivered as a self-paced video program. Start when you enroll, complete at your own pace.
A Tour Guide provides local expertise and does walking tours, step-on motor coach narration in their city, meets and greets at an airport, works at seminars and conventions, etc. Tour Operators and Destination Management Companies hire them.
Is this Course for Me?
Tour Guides are knowledgeable within a specific locality such as a city, region, state, specific geographic area, or a special interest such as Adventure, Food and Wine, Photography, and so much more.
Tour Guides provide walking tours, step-on guide service, local driver guides, on-site tours, and/or may work special events, airports’ “meet and greets”, and more.
Tour guides are rarely away from home overnight.
If you want to be a Tour Guide, whether working in the USA or other countries, this is the course to take. Click here for your scheduled Tour Guide Classes for 2026.
Who Becomes a Tour Guide?
Tour Guides come from every background and walk of life.
What they share is a passion for one specific place or subject — and the desire to share it with people who came from somewhere else. If you can answer “what makes this place special?” with conviction, you have what it takes to become a Tour Guide.
What will I Learn?
The beginning modules in this certification program include:
- Travel Industry Terminology and Tourism Industry Overview
- Types of Assignments for Tour Guides
- Conduct and Ethics, Dress Codes, Leadership
- Commentary Skills, Research, Presentation Formats
- Teamwork, Physical Aspects of Guiding, Public Speaking, Group Welcomes
- Master your role as the “Local Expert.”
- Industry Relationships
- and more…. With IGA you learn by doing.
YES! You Be Paid To Travel and share your passion with others.
- Hourly pay from Tour Company (minimum 4 hours)
- Cash gratuities from the travelers
- All expenses paid per Tour Company’s policy.
- Travel Industry Perks
Why Self-Paced Video Works for Tour Guide Training
Tour Guide training is self-paced video by design — not by compromise.
Your future workplace is local. You will guide in your city, your region, your area of expertise. Unlike Tour Directors who travel internationally, Tour Guides need to stay close to home while training so they can begin building local industry connections from day one. Self-paced video lets you train without travel, without scheduling conflicts with current work or family, and on whatever timeline fits your life.
The training also means you learn from the same active-industry instructors that train IGA’s Tour Directors — without needing to travel to Denver. Watch on your schedule. Replay any section. Take notes at your own pace. Complete the program in days if you are ready, or spread it across weeks.
How the Program Works
Self-paced video format. Begin the moment you enroll. Complete on your own schedule — most students finish within two to four weeks.
What Is The Cost?
- The registration fee – $100 non refundable
- Tuition – $795
- Total Cost – $895
After You Are Certified
The day you graduate, you receive IGA’s “Getting Hired” book — a directory of over 150 Tour Operators, Destination Management Companies, and local agencies that hire IGA-certified Tour Guides.
You also receive personalized coaching on writing your cover letter and resume, free for life. There is no expiration date on IGA’s placement assistance. Whether you start working next month or next year, the door stays open.
Terms & Conditions:
- We accept Credit Cards, Checks, PayPal, Zelle, Money Orders, and Cash.
- Each course carries its certification leading to rewarding careers. All books, materials, etc. required are included in the tuition.
- Lifetime job placement assistance is available free for all of our graduates.
- Consider checking with your tax accountant or advisor to see if you are eligible for the IRS’s Lifetime Learning tax credit.
- Take BOTH Tour Guide AND Tour Director courses in 12 months and receive an additional tuition discount. This means you can take both the Tour Director course and the Tour Guide course for only $2,590.
- Both courses are independent of each other and lead to separate career paths. They do, however, complement each other. Course content is different in both classes offered.
Ready to Become a Certified Tour Guide?
Earn your certification on your own schedule.