Month: January 2020

Guiding German Visitors Around the Region

Posted on by Alex Jacobs

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Experience North Ltd is offering fluent German speakers, passionate about travel, the opportunity to undertake workshops leading to paid work in the tourism industry in both Liverpool and Scotland.

A similar course ran in 2018 in Newcastle providing more German-speaking tour guides & managers to support the increase in German cruise visitors to the region. Anna Unger was one of them.

Anna has now lived in the UK for 12 years, a former tour guide in Munich, Anna is from Lake Constance in southern Germany. On arrival in the UK, Anna booked a private tour with one of the only German-speaking guides in North East England. Alex Jacobs had just completed his Blue Badge Guiding course and was setting up Northern Secrets Ltd at the time.

Now working alongside Paul Mullins as Experience North Ltd, in both the North West and North East as well as Scotland, Alex is looking to recruit more German-speaking guides & tour managers, just like Anna.

Why did the course appeal to you?

I’d worked as a guide in Germany and knew it was something I enjoyed, but it wasn’t easy to find a way into the industry in the UK. Training to be a Blue Badge Guide is quite expensive and there wasn’t going to be a course imminently, so I was very interested in training to work with cruise tourists when I heard about the Experience North Ltd series of workshops.

What did the course cover?

Everything you could need to know in terms of the basics was covered. There is essential theory, but it is also very practical. It really is learning on the job. The workshop has equipped me with the knowledge and tools to guide cruise passengers to many attractions and destinations. It is great as a refresher course for anyone who has guided in the past but also as an entry point into the tourism industry and guiding. A great way of testing out whether guiding is for you, before embarking on a course that requires much more personal investment, in terms of both time and money.

What did you expect to happen afterwards?

Alex was very honest about the expectations of work following the course. I was looking for flexible work that I could fit around my other commitments and I’ve been able to work approximately 100 days during my first year guiding for German tourists.

What kind of work have you undertaken?

Much of the work has been day trips for cruise passengers arriving at the Port of Tyne as well as mini-cruise groups of German guests arriving by DFDS ferry. Most of these trips go to Newcastle and Durham, but some have also taken me to Alnwick and Hadrian’s Wall. I’ve also hosted the guided Vera Tour, a partnership with Brit Movie Tours and Experience North Ltd, which take in more than 10 locations in North East England that feature in episodes of the iconic TV crime drama series

What has been your favourite experience guiding in North East England?

The Prosecco picnic that a 60th birthday party enjoyed on one of the Vera tours I hosted is a favourite. The whole coach thoroughly enjoyed themselves celebrating and singing alongside the party who came fully prepared in their own t-shirts, hats and food with fizz. Locals discovered so much about their own area, and overseas tourists certainly experienced the infamous northeast welcome.

What benefit has the course been to you?

Guiding is so much fun, it’s different every day and enables me to meet lots of new different people. As well as providing me with the opportunity to work flexibly in an industry and location that I love, it has also given me enough experience, confidence, skills and knowledge to go ahead and train to become a Blue Badge Guide (this should be, and hopefully successfully, completed by mid 2021). There is always a shortage of guides with additional language skills so I’d whole-heartedly encourage anyone who can speak fluent German and loves to talk to people and travel to think about taking advantage of these training opportunities.

Courses will run in Scotland and Liverpool in March 2020.

For more information about the course please contact Paul Mullins on [email protected] or call 0151 334 84 29 / 07860 6810781

Opportunity for German Speaking tour leaders in Scotland

Posted on by Alex Jacobs

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We have launched a new training course leading to paid work for fluent German speakers to support the tourism industry in Scotland

Experience North Ltd is a Destination Management Company, working closely with tourist attractions and tour operators, looking for people who are fluent in German, including German nationals living in Scotland, to take part in a 5-day training program in March so they can help tour manage German tourist groups on extended trips around the region whilst they are in Scotland.

The 5-day course will take place from 12-15 March 2020 to prepare new tour managers for the forthcoming busy period in the tourism calendar. The workshop will include both theory-based sessions and practical training excursions. Once trained, these new tour managers will then work with Experience North Ltd to accompany German-speaking tour groups on extended tours across Scotland, to help them make the most out of their visit to Scotland.

Alex Jacobs, MD of Experience North Ltd said: “Scotland is hugely popular with German tour groups and demand outstrips capacity with regards to tour managers. The workshop is being created in direct response to the lack of German-speaking tour managers.

“Scotland has so much culture and heritage to offer visitors, but currently we just don’t have enough German speaking tour leaders to meet the demand. A tourist guide with a translator is an alternative for some tours, but not a solution to multi-day cultural holidays. We hope through specialist training we can increase the number of German-speaking tour leaders and further support tourism in Scotland” said Alex.

Alex himself is bi-lingual and has dual British and German nationality. He is a qualified Blue Badge Tourist Guide and has been bringing trips and tours to Northern England and Scotland from Europe since 2008.

“We are really looking to train outgoing people, who enjoy showing off where they live, talking in German with people and who are willing to learn and share their passion with visitors. It is also a great opportunity for someone looking to get started in the guiding and tourism industry. This could lead on to becoming a Blue Badge Guide or working in the wider industry in future.”

The training course will cost £195.00 and will run for 4 days and cover the following:

  • Best practice in tourist guiding / tour management
  • Crisis management
  • Specific training for coach tours
  • Training in theory & practice of the most popular routes
  • Edinburgh city tour (theory & practice)
  • Accommodation for 3 nights (BB) for anyone not local to the area

For more information about the workshop please contact Paul Mullins (email: [email protected] / 0151 334 84 29 / 07810 860 681

Train with us to work as a tourist guide for cruise tours into Liverpool

Posted on by Alex Jacobs

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We are working closely with tourist attractions and cruise operators in the region, and looking for people who are fluent in German, including German nationals living in Liverpool and the surrounding region to take a series of free workshops. The workshops will equip participants on the programme with the knowledge and tools to guide cruise passengers to attractions in Liverpool and destinations further afield like, Port Sunlight, Chester and Manchester.

Our free weekend workshops will take place over four weekends during March and will prepare new guides for the forthcoming busy summer cruise season. Once trained, our new German speaking guides will then work with us on a self-employed basis, accompanying German-speaking cruise passengers on shore excursions across the region, to help them make the most out of their visit to the North West.

Cruise tourism in the North West needs more fluent German language speakers to help support the growing industry. 2019 was a record-breaking year for cruise calls to Liverpool with 86 calls, and 2020 is expected to bring an increase of a further 20%, taking cruise calls to Liverpool to over 100.

11 per cent of the cruise ship passengers in 2020 to Liverpool will be German speaking. Popular shore excursions for German visitors will include excursions in Liverpool to The Beatles Story, Speke Hall, Port Sunlight and the city’s cathedrals, as well as to Manchester and Chester city centres.

Paul Mullins, Director, Experience North Ltd said: “Liverpool has successfully increased the number of cruise calls, and now the growth in the number of German visitors means more German speaking guides are required. The workshops have been created in direct response to the lack of German-speaking guides and will support German Cruise Lines visiting Liverpool.”

“Liverpool, Chester and Manchester have so much culture and heritage to offer visitors, but currently we just don’t have enough German Speaking Guides to meet the demand. An English-speaking guide with a translator is an alternative, but not a perfect solution. We hope through specialist training we can increase the number of German-speaking guides and further support cruise operators,” said Paul.

“We are really looking to train outgoing people, who like walking and talking in German with people, who are willing to learn and share their passion for this region with visitors. It is also a great opportunity for someone looking to get started in the guiding and tourism industry.”

One of Experience North Ltd partners is Intercruises Shoreside and Port Services, an experienced global business offering turnaround, shore excursions, port agency and hotel services to the ocean and river cruise industry.

Benjamin Hick, Head of UK, Ireland and Northern Countries said: “Germany is the world’s second-largest cruise source market, and its proximity to the UK will result in greater demand for German speakers in the very near future. We fully endorse any initiatives to increase the capacity of the German-speaking tourist infrastructure in Northern English ports.”

The free workshop will run for four weeks and cover best practice and what to expect whilst guiding a group of approximately 40 people, how to deal with the pitfalls that can happen and testing out some of the most popular day trips themselves.

For more information about the course please contact Paul Mullins on [email protected] or call 0151 334 84 29/07810860681