Tourist Guides Versus the Technology Threat

Abstract

The study aims to understand the technology threat to the jobs of tourist guides and the way they perceive technology’s impact. An email interview method is preferred while collecting the data from 25 countries. The findings reveal that although many guides mentioned the essentiality of human touch in guidance, they are aware of the influence of AI, the metaverse and smart technologies. Loss of jobs is very much possible, according to the vast majority of guides. They believe that without training and adapting themselves to novel technologies like the metaverse, they will not attract new generations and guides may lose jobs due to a lack of applying new technology to their own ways of doing business. The study enlightens the tour guidance field and the metaverse perceptions of guides influencing jobs. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.