| Abstract: | The two lines of origin of the modern tourist guide are the pathfinder and the mentor. These are the antecedents, respectively, of the leadership and the mediatory spheres in the guide's role. Since each has an inner and an outer directed aspect, four major components of the role are distinguished: the instrumental, social, interactionary, and communicative. The dynamics of development of the role from the Original to the Professional Guide is represented as a transition of emphasis from the instrumental to the communicative component. Aside from this main line of development, two new role types have differentiated: the Animator and the Tour-leader, emphasizing, respectively, the social and the interactionary components. The Original Guide's function is to produce attractions in the marginal regions of the ecological tourist system, while that of the Professional Guide is to reproduce the attractions in the central regions of the system. |
