In 2025

In 2024

Read your Trip Notes prior to your tour. The trip notes include the itinerary the customers will be expecting to follow. It is essential that you include all the elements of the tour listed in this document.

Familiarise yourself with the following points prior to the start of each tour.  

Refer to the Operational Manual for more details on the following points.

Welcome briefing - Ensure you do aclear and thorough welcome briefing.

Daily briefings - Give daily briefings which include timings for the day, activities, meals, accommodation, what’s required of the group, clothing, money, water, etc.

Safety briefings - Give safety briefings when needed.

Talks - You are the expert local guide. Teach the customers about your country – for example about the customs, culture, history, important sites and landscapes.

Explore Representative - You are leading an Explore tour. Please brief your groups on who Explore is. Wear your Explore branded kit. Make sure there is plenty of branding around – in your hotels and on your vehicles/vessels.

Restaurant choice and eating with the group – Choose authentic, clean restaurants and have dinner with the group when the meal is included within the itinerary, plus at least every couple of nights. Always eat with the group on the first and last evening. If you are not eating with them, make sure they have a recommendation and are aware of how to find the eating place.

Reassure your group – Tell them, for example,‘I’m here to make sure the tour runs smoothly. Please come to me with any concerns or questions you have during the tour”.

If you have a concern with members of the group, please record this on your trip report and inform us immediately.

Good communication is important - Manage customers’ expectations, warn customers of what is coming up.

Issues on tour - Contact your local agent and Explore about any issues you have on tour as soon as possible - do not wait until the end of the trip. These could be itinerary, customer or incident related. The sooner we know, the better prepared we are, should customers contact us.

Rooming issues - Remember to stay in reception for 15 minutes after your hotel check-in, in case of any rooming issues.

Lost luggage – Assist customers with lost luggage by helping them contact the airline/airport to relocate their bags. Also ask for assistance from your ground agent.

Transfers - Liaise with your ground agent about arrival transfers and make sure they are all booked and confirmed, and have the correct branding i.e. Explore signs.

Special requests - Check your passenger manifest form before the tour for any pre-existing medical conditions, allergies, dietary requirements etc., and make the relevant arrangements.

Safety – Give regular safety briefings, do regular safety checks on your accommodation, transport and activities – report any concerns immediately.

Check Insurance – Complete and send any missing insurance details to tourleaders@explore.co.uk

Accommodation – In your welcome briefing, ask customers to be aware of fire escapes, evacuation maps, fire equipment, meeting points and pool safety (if applicable).

Vehicles – Brief groups to wear seatbelts even where it is not the law. Ensure you are confident with the quality of the vehicles and that drivers are acting professionally and driving safely.

Activities – Only use approved suppliers for activities as listed on the Risk Assessment. Make sure that safety briefings are provided for all activities. Refer to the Risk Manual for more information or ask your ground agent.

Optional Activities – Do not accept direct payment for medium/high risk optional activities. Refer to the Operational Manual for further details.

Incidents on tour – Send an incident report with all fields completed as soon as you can – within 24 hours.

First aid kit - Always carry your first aid kit with you.

Illness & Covid 19 – If you have a reported case of Illness or Covid 19 on your tour, contact Explore to discuss the best course of action.  Email incidents@explore.co.uk and call the duty phone on 0044 7774151531.

Plastic waste – Reduce the use of plastic waste on tour. Download this handy refill app www.refill.org.uk and promote Explore’s Sustainable Travel Policies.

Whilst not mandatory, we encourage tour leaders to set up WhatsApp groups, with the following requirements:

Separate from a WhatsApp group, we encourage tour leaders to give customers their phone number in case of an emergency. Again, this isn’t mandatory - if leaders aren’t handing out their phone numbers they should:

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal data from individuals who live in the EU.

What’s included? Anything that can help identify a person is managed under GDPR rules including names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, health and allergy information, insurance and passport information.

Ensure you:

 

·       Keep personal data safe

·       Do not pass round the tour leader manifest or final passenger list

·       Only share what information is necessary (for hotel rooming for example)

·       Report any data breach

·       Destroy data once finished with

Please note, you are responsible for any data breaches. It’s important to minimise your risk by reducing how much data you handle.

 

Refer to our On Tour Forms & Documents summary for the most up to date on tour report forms and procedures.

Send any additional incident related updates to incidents@explore.co.uk  

Please title the email with the customer’s full name, trip code with start date and booking reference.

If you have any concerns during your tour, please contact your local agent first.

If your agent is unable to help you resolve your questions, please contact us at ontour@explore.co.uk

If it’s an emergency, please contact our 24-hour Duty Manager on 0044 7774151531.

We are striving for excellence. Customer feedback tells us what we’re doing well and highlights areas in which we can improve.

• Encourage your customers to complete their questionnaires and online Feefo reviews
• Customers can win! We are running a prize draw every 6 months to win £1000 of Explore travel vouchers for customers who have completed questionnaires
• Customers can vote for you to become the next ‘Tour Leader of the Year’.
• Tour Leader Award – Four prizes, one £1500 and three £750 with 50% going to a charity of the Tour Leader's own choice – view our 2024 winners