Skills books › Tour Guiding as a Side Hustle

How to register as a tourist guide in South Africa

Register before you charge for a tour. South Africa's Tourism Act requires every person who guides tourists for reward to be registered. Guiding for payment without registration is an offence, and so is employing an unregistered guide.

The rules sit in the Act and its regulations, which can change. Check the current requirements with your Provincial Registrar before you apply.

Why registration exists

• It protects guests, who trust guides with their safety and with the story of the country.
• It protects guides, because the people they compete with must be competent too.
• It makes sure that guides have first aid training and know their area.

Tour operators, hotels and guesthouses will ask to see your badge before they send you guests.

Showing your own visitors around for free is not tourist guiding. Once you are paid, or you advertise tours, the rules apply.

Who registers guides?

A Provincial Registrar in each of the nine provinces receives applications, registers guides who qualify, issues the certificate and badge, and handles renewals and complaints. The office usually sits in the provincial department responsible for tourism or economic development.

Apply to the Registrar of the province where you will guide. The National Registrar, in the national Department of Tourism, keeps the national register.

Areas and fields

Guides are registered for where they may guide and for what kind of guiding they may do.

Area:

• a site or local area, such as one museum, town or district;
• a province;
• the whole country.

Most new guides start with a site or local area that they know well.

Fields:

• culture: history, heritage, people, towns, townships, museums and food;
• nature: plants, birds, animals and landscapes;
• adventure: specific activities such as hiking, rafting or kayaking, each needing its own training.

Guide only within what you are registered for. A culture guide may explain the history of a building, but should not lead a paid mountain hike without the adventure competence for it.

Applying, step by step

1. Decide your area and field.
2. Contact your Provincial Registrar and ask what you need. Write down the answer and the date.
3. Complete a qualification, skills programme or assessment that the Registrar accepts for your area and field. Check a course with the Registrar before you pay for it.
4. Get a valid first aid certificate from a recognised provider.
5. Apply to the Provincial Registrar with the documents listed below.
6. Receive your registration certificate and badge, and start guiding within your area and field.

An application usually needs:

• the application form;
• your ID, or a passport and the right work permit;
• recent passport-size photographs;
• certified copies of your competence and first aid certificates;
• the fee.

Fees and waiting times change. Apply well before the season in which you want to guide.

The badge and renewal

Wear your badge where guests and officials can see it whenever you guide.

Registration does not last for ever. Renew it within the period that the Registrar sets, and keep your first aid certificate valid. Note both dates.

To add a field or a bigger area later, show the new competence and apply to have it added.

The code of conduct

Registered guides are expected to:

• be honest about tours, prices and facts;
• respect guests, communities, cultures and places;
• protect guests' safety and the environment;
• behave professionally;
• guide only within their area and field.

Guests can complain to the Provincial Registrar. A guide who breaks the code or the law can lose registration.

This guide is based on Chapter 2 of Tour Guiding as a Side Hustle, which includes a registration checklist.