Multilingual tour guides cashing in on visitor boom

China has welcomed an increasing number of foreign tourists as the country continues to promote its inbound tourism market, and tour guides who can speak English and other languages such as Spanish, Russian and Thai have been in high demand.

Unlike Chinese-speaking tour guides, many foreign language tour guides have been working independently in China and cooperating with travel agencies. For those who don't have enough connections with travel agencies, they often join newly established organizations, and there are intermediaries who help recommend more work opportunities, industry players observed.

The salary level of foreign language tour guides mainly depends on the language they speak and the number of days they lead tour groups. Salaries for tour guides who speak lesser-known languages are usually higher than for English tour guides, said Tongcheng Travel, a Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.