Struggling the COVID-19 Pandemic of Professional Tourist Guides: A Case Study in Turkey

Tourist guides are a key component of the tourism industry, contributing to the destination’ image,country-wide tourism, and the overall experience of tourists. They are one of the occupationalgroups most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to determine how and to whatextent tourist guides are affected by the pandemic, what to expect from relevant institutions andorganizations in possible crisis periods and to make suggestions in this regard. To this end, a casestudy was chosen as the study design, and the interview technique, which is one of the qualitativedata collection methods, was preferred. The data were collected from 15 tourist guides who wenton tours at least once during the pandemic period, and were subjected to content and descriptiveanalysis. The findings revealed that tourist guides were deeply affected by the pandemic ineconomic, psychological, social, and professional terms. Moreover, it was determined that touristguides have expectations from relevant institutions, such as grant support and effectivemanagement during times of crisis. Based on the findings, some suggestions were made tostakeholders in the tourism sector.