In Hong Kong - absolutely and here is why it matters

**Me Jamie, your host, I am English and I have lived in Hong Kong since January 2nd 1972 - I know the place.**

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Hong Kong Tours - Does Age + Experience of a Guide matter?

In Hong Kong - absolutely and here is why it matters

Me, Jamie | Your Very Experienced Hong Kong Private Tour Guide with 2,350+ private tours completed since 2011

click on the image to enlarge

Look at the image, I am NOT a young guy anymore, I have been around the block and I have lived in Hong Kong for 53 years and counting, I have been married for over 40 years and we have 3 adult sons, the youngest is 26.

This is basically a reworking of a blog post I wrote earlier this year and I am now expanding on the theme

I have read a lot of articles and used AI to expand my knowledge of this subject as well as observing the ever changing landscape of tours in Hong Kong.

… and yes, I write a lot of blog posts about Hong Kong which has become quite popular even amongst people who are not interested in tours, I enjoy the whole researching and writing stuff and yes I actively promote my friends tours as well.

When I launched my first website in mid 2010 I was the only one promoting private tours professionally as they say, the tours available then basically consisted of coach tours which have been around in Hong Kong since the late 1950’s and not much has changed.

The Hong Kong Government in many respects does not really care about foreign tourists as essentially since 2003 tourists from Mainland China have accounted for being 70 - 80% of tourists coming to Hong Kong and those tours are regulated and in a nutshell Chinese Tourists go on coach tours of 50 people with barely competent and poorly paid guides and for as long a I can remember they have supplemented their income by forcing their guests to buy stuff from shops and they get a commission, it is heavily regulated these days but the forced shopping still exists, they still however travel around Hong Kong in large groups.

When it comes to foreign tourists visiting Hong Kong there are basically 2 types of tours available

Private Tours for essentially 1 - 6 people
Group Tours for essentially 20 - 100 people

and Private Tours are a lot more popular.

By my estimation there are at least 50 companies offering Private Tours of Hong Kong, I work very closely with the top 10 of these companies as we all follow a code of practice when it comes to quality and service.

So I posed the question to the AI I use and this is what comes up

Yes, the age and experience of a guide can matter in Hong Kong tours as a guide's life experience often correlates with their ability to provide deeper local context, nuanced storytelling, and effective problem-solving, particularly for specific demographics. However, the ideal guide depends on the tour's focus; a younger guide may be better for a tour focused on trendy spots and social media-friendly locations, while an older, more experienced guide might provide more in-depth historical and cultural insights.

How age and experience matter

Deeper insights: Older guides, especially those who have lived in Hong Kong for decades, may have a richer understanding of the city's history and cultural evolution.
Better storytelling: Experience can improve a guide's ability to connect with guests and tell compelling stories that make a tour memorable.
Improved time management: An experienced guide can better structure a tour, especially in a bustling city like Hong Kong, and navigate public transport more efficiently.
Demographic relevance: A guide's life experience can influence how well they connect with specific age groups. For instance, an older guide may better relate to older guests, while a younger guide might be more adept at showing trendy, social-media-worthy spots.
Adaptability: An experienced guide is more likely to be able to adapt to unexpected situations, like public transport delays, and adjust the itinerary accordingly.

Choosing the right guide

For in-depth cultural and historical tours: Consider an older guide who has extensive local knowledge and experience.
For family-friendly or group tours: Choose a guide who has experience with the specific demographic you are traveling with.
For tours focused on trendy spots: A younger guide may have a better sense of the latest popular locations, particularly those popular on social media

For the most part I agree with these sentiments but there are other factors.

Personally I think that the best tour guides in Hong Kong are in general over the age of 40 all the way up to 70….

Clearly there are exceptions to the rule as I personally know fantastic guides who are in their early 30’s or even a little younger but I should point out that a lot of younger guides only do group tours with 20 - 100 people and they have specific itineraries and learn to memorise scripts and generally simply do not have the life experience to do a Private Tour where you have to actively engage your guests on Hong Kong in general for up to 8 hours., on group tours they only know how to respond to simple questions and generally do not like to engage in one and one conversations.

Back in 2011 I got a lot of advice from a wonderful chap called Dicky Woollard and we where very close, he was a little older than me and one of the first people I contacted to have skull sessions, I learnt a lot from him and it gave me a lot of confidence as I was always worried that being 49 at the time was too old to become a guide, he taught me otherwise, I was heartbroken when Dicky left Hong Kong a few years ago to return to the UK, I remember him fondly for his friendship and advice.

I have also had some people questions how as a Brit how could I possibly understand Hong Kong Chinese Culture, well, I have lived here for 53 years and for 25 years under British rule, most of my wife’s family is Chinese, she went to local Chinese schools and her first language is Cantonese and she has lived here longer than me as she was born here and that 53 years gives me a lot of local knowledge.

… and to me my heritage gives me a very big advantage, with me you get the good, the bad and the ugly and yes I love Hong Kong, its culture and the Chinese people, it is my home and my families home and as a businessman for over 40+ years I am used to dealing with all sorts of people from all over the world.

Here are some facts and figures I would like to share with you based on the 2,350+ Private Tours of Hong Kong that I have done since 2011.

Ages of my guests and the % of that age range of the Private Tours done

10 - 19 years old 0.2%
20 - 29 years old 3.8%
30 - 39 years old 10.6%
40 - 49 years old 22.9%
50 - 59 years old 32.4%
60 - 69 years old 23.2%
70+ years old 6.9%

The key point of these statistics is that 96% of people who book a private tour of Hong Kong with me are over the age of 30, I am not very popular with people under 30! I am guessing that young people under 30 probably take free tours or group tours which are obviously more affordable and the actual tour content is not that important to them and the best selfie spots are.. which is odd because the best selfie spot in Hong Kong is the worlds most amazing panoramic view from Victoria Peak, Lugard Road and yet the overwhelming majoity of tour guides in Hong Kong avoid it because it is a 20 minute walk to get there from the Peak Tram,

…. and something to ponder - who do you think knows more about Hong Kong, a fresh graduate age 25 or someone who has lived a lifetime in Hong Kong?

… and frankly speaking, to do family tours when you have parents and kids, then quite simply you need a guide who is a parent themselves and understand family dynamics, i do a lot of family tours

I was born to be a private tour guide and if you have lived in Hong Kong for 10+ years and you are around 40 you will have more than enough knowledge, I have been in Hong Kong for 53 years since I was 11 years old, I know Hong Kong and I expand my knowledge daily because I want to, it is such a fascinating place.

One of my little jokes so to speak is that I could do an 8 hour tour of Hong Kong sat in he lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, I have the gift of being a storyteller.

I had a conversation with our youngest son recently as he has expressed an interest in becoming a Private Tour Guide, I was thrilled by this but I also think that at 26 (and an English teacher) he needs more life experience to do well and I pointed out to him that he could learn the ropes so to speak by learning the trade doing free tours or group tours and spending his time researching, visiting places and taking photographs.

…. and on the subject of photographs, my FLICKR site which can be accessed on this sites menu, well, I have uploaded 177,000+ images of Hong Kong and counting.

Yes, I have strong feelings about being a tour guide and age, I do not believe that really anyone under the age of 40 has enough life experience to be a private tour guide particularly when you are dealing with people who have very impressive occupations, I took up being a private tour guide when I was 49 | 50 already married with 3 sons and a lifetime of work experience as a consultant, most of my Private Tour Guide friends are over 35 and trust me Tour Guides get better with age, do not underestimate life experience it is critical to the whole tour experience.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board scheme to interact with visitors to Hong Kong, see below and I have no doubt that they will scrap this scheme as soon as AI gets more mature and it sucks that they rely on volunteers, they should pay them to do this!

The Hong Kong Tourism Board - PALS scheme 2024 | 2025

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The Hong Kong Tourism Board has a scheme called PAL running and for while, in a nutshell Hong Kong residents are hired to promote Hong Kong and give out factual information and such and as for this scheme goes, they are keen to hire young folk, well most 18 - 25 year old’s that they to hire have just left school or University, what on earth do they know about Hong Kong, Hong Kong History and Life when their own life revolves around social media on their phone and going out socialising etc, I would much rather chat to an older person who has that “life experience”

I have a hard time believing that young kids have the life experience to deal with people who are generally much older and remember this whole PALS initiative by the Hong Kong Tourism Board is on a volunteer basis so I am pretty sure they do not get paid and the old maxim applies, you get what you pay for and seriously do you think 18 - 25 year old young folk are qualified to talk to foreign tourists about Hong Kong?

The other thing that worries me is the “Holistic training from Hospitality Experts” I know all about Hong Kong Government Training schemes which involves a lot of rote learning and filling your head full of totally useless information and doing stuff that has NO relevance to doing an actual Private Tour.

I have only 3 pieces of advice for people wanting to be a Private Tour Guide

Treat your guests in the same way as if you where giving friends and family a tour of Hong Kong
You have to be prepared to devote a lot of your time on researching, ie visiting sites, neighbourhoods and such and reading anything and everything of relevance, it is a non stop learning process 7 days a week 365 days a year.
You have to be prepared to discuss Hong Kong in detail and not just paint a rosy picture of a Utopian City, you have to get into the nitty gritty and not shy away from difficult subjects, your guests want the unvarnished version of what makes Hong Kong such a unique city, they want to hear about the REAL Hong Kong!

To me a couple of months rote learning Government guidelines will not make you a great tour guide, you either have the gift or you don’t.

… and for the record I have done quite a few tours in Hong Kong in the interests of research and learning and I am always horrified that guides rely on memorised scripts and rely on visual aids and such and with large group tours they do not interact with 40 guests individually, there sole aim is NOT to lose anyone on the tour.

Perhaps you are getting the idea that I am all about the quality of the experience.!

Hong Kong is an amazing city and as a visitor there is only one way to experience Hong Kong and that is to take a Private Tour of Hong Kong with an older and more experienced guide.

I have also written extensively about English fluency (as an example) in Hong Kong, sadly there are far too many people who do not speak fluent English at a level acceptable to foreign visitors… I should point out that I do not speak Cantonese the local Hong Kong Chinese Language despite been married for over 40 years to a wife whose native language is Cantonese, I simply do not have the language gift despite many attempts at trying and lots of money spent on private tutors and I do not pretend that I can speak a little of it or understand it and here is a tip for you, in my experience in Hong Kong English fluency these days is a lot more prevalent in OLDER residents NOT younger residents.

A lot of my friends who are also Private Tour Guides have on their books Hong Kong Chinese Guides who are brilliant, they have had all their useless Government training knocked out them, a lot of them are probably well over 40 which is perfect, I was fortunate in that I lived in Hong for 25 years under British rule and now 28 years under Chinese rule, which means I have rather a unique perspective on Hong Kong and anyone that has lived in Hong Kong for 40 years will have that perspective as well, something to bear in mind.

Finally, see below, I can tell you now that dealing with guests with such diverse occupations is a gift, it is not easy, I know that when I was under 35 I would not have had the confidence to deal with many of these wonderful people but as I got older I was able to relate more and more, what’s that old chestnut? - with age comes wisdom!