Identification of Core Competencies of International Tour Leaders

Tour guides have an effective role in guiding and meeting the material and spiritual needs and spiritual richness of tourists. The purpose of this study is to identify and present the core competencies of international tour guides. According to the objectives, this study is a descriptive-qualitative one based on library studies and the Delphi method. The statistical population of the study consists of university experts and international tour guides. Purposive sampling was used and snowball method was used to identify the guides and the data were saturated with the participation of 28 experts. Based on the research findings, core competencies of tour guides include management and leadership, professional ethics, physical health and appearance, Personality traits, mastery in national and international laws, technical knowledge, intercultural competences, effective communicative skills, psychological skills, and medical skills were obtained. Therefore, it is recommended that tourism policymakers make strategic plans to develop core competencies of international tour leaders through seminars, workshops and courses.