Tourist guides and tour leaders are story-tellers, door-openers, interpreters of cultural heritage, and often a visitor's only personal contact with the local population.

Scientific studies show that tourist guides can change visitors' understanding and behaviour towards sustainability through their explanations (Weiler & Black 2015, Weiler & Kim 2011, Hu & Wall 2012, Zatori et al. 2018). Tourist guides and tour leaders influence and help decide where a tour goes, what visitors see there, what and how they learn about the visited places, how long they stay, etc. They can also influence how visitors perceive sustainability and how they experience the destination, perceive the local culture and society and behave on site. This in turn influences the impact of tourism activities on the environment, culture, economy and people in the destination (Hu & Wall 2012).

At the Institute for Regional Development we examine the status quo of tour guiding in South Tyrol and develop together with territorial stakeholders concrete measures to maintain and further increase the quality of services and to contribute to a sustainable tourism development in South Tyrol.