Tour guides rate their happiness above average.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, tour guides rate their career happiness 3.6 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 23% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy tour guides are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Ski patroller
3.9
$29k
Tour guide
3.6
$24k
Recreation worker
3.4
$30k
Flight attendant
3.3
$62k
Tailor
3.2
$31k
Lifeguard
3.2
$26k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

  • Salary: Are tour guides happy with their salary?
  • Meaning: Do tour guides find their jobs meaningful?
  • Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as tour guides?
  • Work environment: How enjoyable are tour guide’s work environments?
  • Skills utilization: Are tour guides making the best use of their abilities?

Are tour guides happy with their salary?

Tour guides rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.8/5. Tour guides tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.

We asked tour guides how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.8 out of 5 stars

1378 tour guides

5 Star
10%

10% of tour guides rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
20%

20% of tour guides rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of tour guides rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
25%

25% of tour guides rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
17%

17% of tour guides rated their compensation 1 stars

Do tour guides find their jobs meaningful?

On average, tour guides rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.1/5. Most tend to be satisified with the level of meaning they find in their careers.

We asked tour guides how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

3.1 out of 5 stars

1392 tour guides

5 Star
15%

15% of tour guides rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
25%

25% of tour guides rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
29%

29% of tour guides rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
20%

20% of tour guides rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
11%

11% of tour guides rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as tour guides?

Tour guides rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.1/5. The majority of tour guides find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked tour guides how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

4.1 out of 5 stars

1518 tour guides

5 Star
41%

41% of tour guides rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
37%

37% of tour guides rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
14%

14% of tour guides rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
6%

6% of tour guides rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
2%

2% of tour guides rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a tour guide’s work environment?

As a whole, tour guides rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.9/5. A solid majority of tour guides enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a tour guide.

We asked tour guides how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.9 out of 5 stars

1511 tour guides

5 Star
33%

33% of tour guides rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
37%

37% of tour guides rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
19%

19% of tour guides rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
8%

8% of tour guides rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
3%

3% of tour guides rated their work environment 1 stars

Are tour guides making the best use of their abilities?

Former tour guides on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.2/5. Most tour guides are satisfied with how well their abilities are skills are made of use.

We asked tour guides how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

3.2 out of 5 stars

1511 tour guides

5 Star
17%

17% of tour guides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
26%

26% of tour guides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of tour guides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
21%

21% of tour guides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
9%

9% of tour guides rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars