Occupation · SOC 39-7012.00
Plan, organize, and conduct long-distance travel, tours, and expeditions for individuals and groups.
Also called: Guide · Tour Escort · Tour Manager · Travel Consultant · Cruise Counselor · Naturalist Guide · Tour Coordinator · Tour Operations Specialist · Tour Operator · Whitewater Rafting Guide · Adventure Guide · Alpine Guide
Job family: Personal Care and Service Occupations
A source-stamped Markdown brief of this occupation — paste it into an agent, or fetch
/roles/role-39-7012-00/context.md directly.
A fast read on where AI already shows up in this occupation, where it stays a copilot, where humans remain in the loop, and what the labor market is doing. Built from observed Claude.ai conversations mapped to O*NET tasks and from published research — measures of usage and exposure, not advice or predictions that the job is going away.
Task areas most often handled directively in observed AI conversations — candidates to delegate with light review.
Task areas where people work with AI — iterating, learning, or checking — staying in the loop rather than handing the task off.
Task areas where a human was still judged necessary in a large share of observed conversations — not a safety ruling, an observed-need signal.
The capabilities O*NET rates most important for this occupation — the human ground the work is built on.
See all skills →Independent published positions, read together — not a forecast.
55th-percentile task overlap — yet observed AI use leans 5031% copilot, not hand-off (AEI) . What exposure means →
What today's research says about this occupation's exposure to AI, how AI is actually being used in it, and where employment is headed. These are positions within published studies — measures of exposure and usage, not predictions that this job will disappear.
Each study uses its own scale, so the raw scores are not comparable across rows — the percentile (this job's rank among all U.S. occupations with data) is the comparable figure, and sizes the bars.
| Measure | Rank vs all occupations | Percentile | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.) Moderate | 62nd | 0.6 | |
| LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou) Moderate | 49th | 0.6 |
OpenAI's exposure study scores tasks three ways: with a language model alone (α 0.2), with simple added tooling (β 0.4), and including AI-powered software (γ 0.6). Higher means more of the job's tasks could be done at least twice as fast — not that they will be automated away.
This job mostly cannot be done remotely (Dingel–Neiman) — its hands-on tasks sit outside what software-based AI reaches.
A pre-LLM (2013) estimate of how automatable this job is by computerization and robotics. Shown for historical context only — it is not part of any current AI ranking.
Frey–Osborne probability 0.1 · 24th percentile among occupations · Low
Among measured AI assistant conversations mapped to this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15), these task types came up most. These are shares of observed AI conversations — not shares of the job, of worker time, or of what could be automated.
| Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites. | 3.0% | |
| Resolve any problems with itineraries, service, or accommodations. | 0.8% | |
| Provide tourists with assistance in obtaining permits and documents such as visas, passports, and health certificates, and in converting currency. | 0.5% | |
| Give advice on sightseeing and shopping. | 0.4% |
The ILO's 2025 global study scores generative-AI exposure on the international ISCO-08 occupation system, not US SOC. Bridged through the published (and approximate, many-to-many) IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 crosswalk, this US occupation corresponds to the international occupation below. Exposure here means how much of the work's tasks today's AI can attempt — task overlap, not automation, adoption, or jobs lost.
| International occupation (ISCO-08) | Task exposure (2025) | Most tasks fall in |
|---|---|---|
| Travel Guides · 5113 | 32% | Minimal |
Read the whole six-band gradient on the GenAI exposure gradient page. The crosswalk is approximate: a US occupation can map to several international ones, and the ILO scores describe the international occupation, not this exact US role.
How people actually apply AI to this occupation's tasks, from Claude.ai (Free and Pro) conversations in the Anthropic Economic Index, 2026-01-15. This is one AI assistant's consumer sample — not all AI, not the whole workforce. Autonomy and the collaboration mix are model-rated estimates; figures below the sample floor are hidden.
| Augmentation vs. automation | 50.3% working with AI · 38.6% handed to AI |
| Most common way people use AI here | Iteration · you and AI go back and forth |
| Typical AI autonomy | 4.0 / 5 · higher = AI acts more independently |
| Used for work (vs. personal / coursework) | 5.6% |
The role's most common tasks in AI conversations, each tagged with how people work with the AI on it. “Usage” is the share of observed conversations, not of the job.
| Task | How | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites. | Iteration | 2.3% |
| Give advice on sightseeing and shopping. | Directive | 0.5% |
| Provide tourists with assistance in obtaining permits and documents such as visas, passports, and health certificates, and in converting currency. | Directive | 0.4% |
Tasks where the model most often judged that a person remained necessary — a useful read on the current boundary, not a guarantee.
| Give advice on sightseeing and shopping. | 100.0% | |
| Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites. | 99.6% | |
| Provide tourists with assistance in obtaining permits and documents such as visas, passports, and health certificates, and in converting currency. | 97.6% |
Example prompts phrased from the tasks people most often delegate to AI in this occupation (Anthropic Economic Index). Each shows the underlying measured task and its share of observed AI use. They are suggested phrasings of real tasks — starting points, not endorsed instructions.
Help me plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites. From: Plan tour itineraries, applying knowledge of travel routes and destination sites. · 2.3% of measured AI use · task iteration
Help me give advice on sightseeing and shopping. From: Give advice on sightseeing and shopping. · 0.5% of measured AI use · directive
Help me provide tourists with assistance in obtaining permits and documents such as visas, passports, and health certificates, and in converting currency. From: Provide tourists with assistance in obtaining permits and documents such as visas, passports, and health certificates, and in converting currency. · 0.4% of measured AI use · directive
All 17 tasks O*NET lists for this occupation, ordered by importance. Each links to its own page with AI-exposure and observed-use detail.
O*NET importance rating, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important).
| Customer and Personal Service | 4.3 | |
| English Language | 3.3 | |
| Sales and Marketing | 3.2 | |
| Administrative | 3.0 | |
| Transportation | 2.9 | |
| Administration and Management | 2.9 | |
| Geography | 2.9 |
| Service Orientation | 4.1 | |
| Social Perceptiveness | 3.9 | |
| Coordination | 3.8 | |
| Persuasion | 3.8 | |
| Time Management | 3.3 | |
| Negotiation | 3.1 | |
| Complex Problem Solving | 3.1 | |
| Judgment and Decision Making | 3.1 | |
| Management of Personnel Resources | 2.9 |
| Speaking | 4.0 | |
| Active Listening | 3.9 | |
| Reading Comprehension | 3.3 | |
| Writing | 3.1 | |
| Critical Thinking | 3.1 | |
| Active Learning | 3.1 | |
| Monitoring | 3.0 |
| Oral Comprehension | 4.0 | |
| Oral Expression | 4.0 | |
| Written Comprehension | 3.9 | |
| Speech Recognition | 3.9 | |
| Speech Clarity | 3.9 | |
| Problem Sensitivity | 3.4 | |
| Near Vision | 3.4 | |
| Deductive Reasoning | 3.3 | |
| Information Ordering | 3.3 | |
| Written Expression | 3.1 | |
| Inductive Reasoning | 3.1 | |
| Category Flexibility | 3.1 | |
| Originality | 3.0 | |
| Selective Attention | 3.0 | |
| Time Sharing | 3.0 | |
| Far Vision | 3.0 | |
| Fluency of Ideas | 2.9 |
Skills employers ask for in job postings for this occupation (Lightcast), with whether each is a common or specialized skill.
| Example | Category | |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Excel | Spreadsheet software | Hot technology In demand |
| Microsoft Office software | Office suite software | Hot technology In demand |
| Web page creation and editing software | Hot technology | |
| Microsoft Access | Data base user interface and query software | Hot technology |
| Microsoft Outlook | Electronic mail software | Hot technology |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | Presentation software | Hot technology |
| Microsoft Word | Word processing software | Hot technology |
| Structured query language SQL | Data base user interface and query software | Hot technology |
| Tableau | Business intelligence and data analysis software | Hot technology |
| Customer information databases | Customer relationship management CRM software | |
| Data visualization software | Analytical or scientific software | |
| Financial accounting software | Accounting software | |
| Global positioning system GPS software | Mobile location based services software | |
| Travel Agent CMS | Data base user interface and query software | |
| Web browser software | Internet browser software |
How characteristic each condition is of the job, on O*NET's 1–5 context scale (higher = more present in day-to-day work). Each condition links to how it varies across all occupations.
What to study: Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services . Fields of study crosswalked to this occupation (NCES CIP–SOC), not a requirement.
Share of people in this occupation at each level of education.
| High School Diploma | 45.8% | |
| Some College Courses | 21.3% | |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 17.6% | |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.8% | |
| Bachelor's Degree | 5.7% | |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.8% |
The interests and personal qualities O*NET associates with people who do this work.
| Personal Service | 6.5 | |
| Public Speaking | 4.3 | |
| Sales | 4.0 | |
| Professional Advising | 3.5 | |
| Management/Administration | 3.1 | |
| Marketing/Advertising | 2.6 | |
| Teaching/Education | 2.5 |
| Dependability | 5.0 | |
| Cooperation | 4.0 | |
| Social Orientation | 3.0 | |
| Adaptability | 2.4 |
| Social | 4.8 | |
| Enterprising | 4.6 | |
| Conventional | 4.3 | |
| Realistic | 2.5 | |
| Artistic | 2.5 |
Side-by-side comparisons place two occupations’ pay, preparation, skills, and AI exposure on the same page — same data, same scale, no forecast.
Options the data surfaces for Travel Guides — not advice or a forecast. Each is a real cross-link you can follow into the evidence.
Capabilities this work builds that are used across many other occupations.
Occupations O*NET rates as related — the nearby moves on the map.
How people typically prepare for this work.
On the global GenAI exposure gradient this work sits around the 60th percentile of 427 international occupations.
Travel Guides sit at the 55th percentile of AI task overlap among U.S. occupations
Travel Guides sit at the 55th percentile of AI task overlap among U.S. occupations • Travel Guides rank in the 55th percentile (Moderate band) for AI task overlap across U.S. occupations — a measure of how much of the work today's AI can attempt, not how much is automated. (Eloundou et al. (GPTs are GPTs) + Felten AIOE) • Of the AI use actually observed for this work, 50% looks like augmentation (drafting, iterating, checking) rather than hands-off automation — from a Claude.ai usage sample, not a census. (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) Source: Singulariki — "Travel Guides". https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-7012-00 Note: AI task overlap measures what today's AI can attempt, not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
AssetsShare imageMethodology & sourcesPress & newsroomThe newsroom
Every line is built only from figures this page already shows and cites. AI task overlap means what today's AI can attempt — not automation, job loss, or a forecast.
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Singulariki. "Travel Guides." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-7012-00
Singulariki. (2026). Travel Guides. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-7012-00
@misc{singulariki-role-39-7012-00,
title = {Travel Guides},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/roles/role-39-7012-00}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.