Our Tour Guides – Gorilla Trek Africa
Our tour guides are mainly recruited from the local community. From our recruitment efforts, we have managed to assemble an outstanding team of local tour guides from Uganda and Rwanda who are not only experienced but are well trained professionals with vast skills and knowledge. They are definitely the pride and soul of our organization. Most of our tour guides are either past Destinations Guide or University graduated Natives with at least a Bachelors in Tourism Management! Our guides have diverse backgrounds and interests. They all speak excellent English though some can also guide tours in German. Only a few of the team originally come from different walks of life including teaching and academia, Botany and Zoology.
Because we know that a tour guide is the single most important element in determining the success of one’s tour, our tour guides are chosen very carefully. We consider not only the extent of their local knowledge, but more importantly their communication skills, organizational abilities, affability, conscientiousness, enthusiasm, and their ability to entertain a group.
Training and Qualification
All our tour guides are fully qualified and licensed with the local authorities in Uganda, and before they are able to work with Gorilla Trek Africa, the guides are given trained by us and USAGA (Uganda Safari Guides Association) about our grass-roots, interactive style of travel, as well as specific training in Responsible Tourism – both in ideology and how to put it into practice! This ensures that our guides are professional and in possession of vast and accurate information and skills to conduct a quality, safe and fun tour! Few companies can boast such an intensive and complete training program!
The Role of the tour Guides on a Trip
The tour guide will suggest and organize group activities as arranged in your Confirmed Itinerary. The guide can organize optional activities as well that give you an insight into the local culture, history and unique ways of life, and explain to you this complex and hard to understand society.
The guide is there to help you follow your particular interests, introduce you to his local friends, and take you to out of the way places that you won’t find in any guidebook about Uganda.
Freedom and flexibility are fundamental components of our tours, so if you would rather explore on your own, you can use the guide for suggestions and the guide can point you in the right direction.
On most of our tours there is plenty of free time, so you can use this to stick closely to your tour guide and hang out with the group, or go your own way and make your own discoveries. The choice is yours!
You will more likely end up seeing your tour guide as your friend who knows all the locals, organizes all the logistics for you, and makes your experience hassle free.
Why we use only local tour guides
We use only native tour guides because, apart from having a deep knowledge about Uganda and Rwanda – society, culture, and history, they help make the tours a rich cultural experience. It also means that the locals are benefiting from employment opportunities and valuable income which is the main core of Sustainable Tourism Development & Responsible Tourism.