Theater Degree to Tour Guide Career Pipeline Is Real for Many Artists

A few years ago, while walking through the Borghese Gallery in Rome, I fell a little bit in love. With the Bernini sculptures, yes, but also with the tour guide who made these marble figures come alive with tenderness and passion. I wondered about her background—she obviously knew so much about the art, was she a historian? But she also had total command of her tour group audience—like an actor on stage.

When it was time for questions at the end, I was able to inquire. It turned out my captivating guide had actually studied both performance and art history. It became a common thread whenever I took a tour: more often than not, if I had a really entertaining or compelling guide, they had some sort of background in the entertainment industry or an arts education. Thus, a fledgling theory was born: theater kids are natural tour guides.

“I hire and train tour guides from my company and for others,” L.J. Whalen, owner and operator of the tour company called Histouria, based in Nashville, told me. “What I look for almost exclusively is a performer or a teacher because teachers are effectively performers, except the audience is the same every day.”

Whalen holds degrees in both Arts and Education. “I thought a career in the arts was inevitable,” he said. He was in the shower one day in Boston, trying to figure out how he was going to pay for his master’s degree when he heard a jingle out the window. The ad said something like Do you like singing? Do you like talking? Do you like putting on a show? Come be a tour guide. “I was like, I do like singing. I do like talking. I do like putting on a show. So I ran out of the shower and scribbled down the ‘1-800-TROLLEY’ or ‘www.trolleyjobs.com.’”

Soon, Whalen was getting asked to lead the VIP and celebrity guests on tours, and started collecting tour guide certifications in cities up and down the East Coast. He would still perform here and there “to keep the passion alive,” but he quickly realized that he could make significantly more money in the tourism industry than he could purely by pursuing acting and theater opportunities.

“We [instill] in all the guides that you might know this story, you might have heard it a thousand times and you might be tired of hearing it, but every single person that buys a ticket, it is most likely the first time that they’ve heard it,” Whalen explained. Every time you give a tour, you have to be able to present it as though you’ve never said this before. I think that’s a skill that’s innately theatrical.”

Framed like that, it’s really not so surprising at all that performers and entertainers are drawn to the tour guide industry. A tour is basically the same performance delivered to a new audience each night.

“It is all storytelling, right?” Keith Abel told me. Abel owns and operates Abel Tours in New Orleans, offering specialized food and music tours. For the last 12 years he’s run his own company—and as he is telling me about the tours he runs, he launches into a little performance just on the phone with me.

Before he worked in the tourism industry, he was in the music industry running record labels and managing artists. When he pivoted to tourism, he didn’t leave the arts behind. Not only are half of his tours centered around the music history of New Orleans, but his side hustles have all been very Hollywood. He has two IMDB credits as visual effects production assistant on Twilight Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2. He was an extra on NCIS: New Orleans—and also did food styling for the show for all seven seasons. Abel believes that his side hustles and his main tour company gig have perfectly transferable skills.

As my trip in Rome illustrated, this isn’t just an American phenomenon. In a tour guide group on Facebook, there are plenty of international examples: a tour guide in Egypt who still fits performing into her schedule. A former actor professionally trained at the National Theater School of Canada who now leads walking tours in Bangkok. A theater actress in Italy who doubles as a tour guide. Leading tourists around historic locations and photo-worthy landmarks has become a viable career option for artists in a world where well-funded art programs and institutions are disappearing frequently.

“I have good friends who one day can literally be a secondary character in a Tony Award-winning show, and then within a week be jobless again and start pretty much from scratch,” Whalen said. Whalen is seeking out talent like that—not only because these gifted performers obviously make great tour guides, but because the pay can often rival what many actors would make in other contexts.

“To be quite frank, the money is real. When I headhunt guides in New York, I know what equity contracts are,” Whalen continued. “I always show unlisted unnamed pay stubs and say, this is twice what equity would be paying you. I’m not saying screw your arts career, but if you’re worried about doing this arts adjacent tour guide track and also being broke because of it, at least at the end of the day, your rent and mortgage and gas bill would be paid.”

Whalen, Fury, and Abel don’t see their careers as separate from the arts—more like a type of performance that doesn’t get as much recognition from the general public. Plus, Whalen’s not wrong when it comes to the financial opportunities. By 2034, tourism and the travel industry is expected to contribute $16 billion to the global GDP. A person could pay off a lot of student loans by tapping into that market.

Looking for more travel inspiration?

If you’re ready for an adventure but not sure where you’d like to go or what to do, we’re on it. The best new hotels opening up around the world. The most exciting places to travel without a passport. The world’s best beaches, as ranked by travel influencers. It’s all here along with all the travel news you need to stay informed and inspired.

Want more Thrillist? Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.