International Tour Management Institute

Coming from a background far from the touring realm of work, I found that ITMI and its instructors extremely beneficial and helpful. I wasn’t sure of making the transition into a completely different career path, however, after speaking with an instructor on the phone for a decent amount of time I was in full go mode and ready to take the jump. After completing the two week program, ITMI helped train and boost my confidence with this new endeavor. ITMI is a fantastic program with great instructors and thousands of great alumni who all have been assisted in some way over the years. If you are looking into switching careers, I highly suggest looking towards ITMI. The experience and friends you’ll make along the way is just an added bonus.

Travel and tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world.
There are thousands of businesses offering different products, locations, trip lengths, and activities. Few aspects are standardized from operator to operator. As a freelance tour director, you’re a sort of cowboy in this world — hiring out your services for a trip, a season. It can be very overwhelming to a newcomer just entering the field.
It really is challenging to prepare a person for every nuance of this kind of career.
But I have to say, ITMI does orient you very well and gives you the support tools you need in order to navigate the open expanses of the field on your own. They are the gold standard in the industry and having them on your resume is a real stamp of approval.
They give you a solid foundation in the basics of local tour guiding, incentive travel, over-​the-​road domestic and international trips, as well as how to set yourself up as a business.
I researched a fair amount before making my decision between ITMI and IGA (the two certification schools). Ultimately, I chose ITMI because of the phone interviews I conducted with former students and the access to their Annual Symposium which puts you in direct contact with many big tour companies (and which IGA students regarded with envy).
I was impressed with how organized and well-​honed the materials I received in class were and by the variety of guest lecturers from different facets of the industry.
Truly, a lot this profession IS trial by fire, but lets be honest, that’s why you’re looking at this review and towards this profession — a part of you wants that…
ITMI will start you on the path, but you have to walk it.

As a graduate in 1996, I can testify that ITMI launched my career change from the corporate world to on-​the-​road travel! The training provided is a great starting point for those wanting to work as a tour guide or tour manager. They staff is professional and very well regarded in the industry.

I completed the ITMI training in February 2012, class #273. The instructors are world class educators, travellers and presentors. The curriculum is certified by the State of California Board of Education. This is «hands on» or should I say «motor-​coach-​on» training You will learning everything you need to know about how tours are developed, launched, how to satisfy demanding, paying clients, and how to handle unexpected circumstances. The instructors will listen, critique and improve your presentations. ITMI does not guarantee you a job. You will have to hustle, just like finding work in any industry. Students from my class are touring the national parks, guiding students in NYC and Washington, DC and keeping busy all over the US and in International destinations as well. This was a great experience for me and I highly recommend that awesome team at ITMI. They do a great job at the annual ITMI Symposium as well, and there you can interview with tour operators (hiring managers) and learn even more about how this industrry works.

I completed the two week training at ITMI in San Francisco in April of 2007. Having just wrapped up a three and a half decade career in technology sales, I was looking for something challenging, adventurous and fun. I found ITMI literally by accident and realized I had been traveling for work and pleasure, organizing projects and making presentations all of my adult life. A career as a Tour Director sounded like the career I had been preparing for without realizing it.
The relationships I made during the two weeks of training at ITMI endure to this day. The lifetime commitment ITMI makes to it’s students includes employment assistance, resume assistance, ongoing training and introductions/​interviews with Tour Operators– our potential employers– at their annual Symposium meetings… and more. Especially when starting out, access to ITMI’s invaluable international network of Tour Directors and Tour Operators helps to shorten the time between graduation and getting that first job. Completing training at ITMI gives the graduate credibility. When interviewing with Tour Operators for possible employment, the completion ITMI training elevates the experienced and inexperienced candidate alike. I believe a potential employer appreciates that a candidate is serious enough to invest in their own training.
The cost of my training was $ 3,000. I was most fortunate to secure an assignment to a two week tour within three days of my graduation. Getting hired for your first tour is a big challenge. That first tour paid for the cost of the training and then some. I did seven more tours in 2007 and have been working steadily ever since. Without ITMI, I wouldn’t even have been aware of the company that hired me. Does everyone who completes the training get hired or stay in the industry? No. But the same can be said for any educational endeavor.
This is my ITMI story. I have no regrets, I admire the program and I have recommended ITMI to friends and associates. Those who took the training share my enthusiasm.

DC is spot on on all of his/​her assumptions and conclusions. This is a 2 week class about logical common sense. The students who succeed are generally those who have prior experience in the Travel Insustry. It is a lot of money not well spent. Kinda of like a used car salesmen…

It appears from DC’s review that he never even attended this school. I know nothing about this school but please don’t post reviews about places that you have never been!

Although I met some nice employees and some even nicer students, in my humble opinion ITMI does not measure up to the massive tuition price. It’s difficult to even define what ITMI really does for it’s tour directors in training. It’s not exactly a school because they can’t even begin to cover all the nuances of tour directing in just two weeks. It’s not exactly a job placement agency for tour directors because they charge the students instead of the tour operators.
ITMI is really just a clever way for it’s Owner/​CEO, Mr. B, to make a living leveraging his contacts in the travel business. It’s not that ITMI is an outright scam, it just can’t deliver very much real value for the $ 3000 tuition, lodging expenses, and two week time commitment in San Francisco. After interviewing and auditing an ITMI road trip, I came away utterly disappointed with this organization for five very specific reasons.
1.) Pointless Interview-​Talking to Mr. B on the audit trip, he didn’t remember one detail of our interview conversation. The interview is really just a marketing tactic to give the school greater perceived value. They can’t legally stop anyone from taking their courses. A few students would have been good tour directors, but most of them needed a lot of work. One woman almost had a panic attack giving her motorcoach presentation.
2.) No such thing as a Certified Tour Director– In the United States, certification is not necessary to be a tour director. A few cities like New York and DC require licensing for local tour guides. An ITMI certificate would still not allow you to do narration in those cities. In the US, there’s no universally recognized certification in Tour Directing and even if there were, the exam requirements would be overseen by an organization of working professionals-​not a private school. Most professional certifications require a certain level of work experience, but most ITMI students have never led an escorted tour; that’s why they’re taking the ITMI course to begin with. No single private school entity would ever have exclusive rights to a universally recognized certification program or be able to charge over $ 3000 for the right to take the exam.
3.) Average Educational Value-​You will leave ITMI knowing more about the travel business. You will also get great tips for tour narration, but you won’t get a simulated tour director experience. Unless the ITMI instructors know how you utilize time and how you handle pressure situations, they won’t be able to give you useful feedback. ITMI really lacks innovation in this regard. One student I kept in contact with said you have to actually experience these trips before you know what you’re doing.
4.) Poor Customer Service-​ITMI completely flaked on my original phone interview time. When I called their offices to complain, nobody returned my call for 6 days. When I sent in my check for the audit trip, nobody deposited my check until I followed up with them a week later. They couldn’t even get my room request right. One of the secretaries brings her dog to work. C’mon people, where’s the professionalism? How can ITMI teach a customer service profession if they don’t have top-​notch customer service? Mr. B didn’t even bother to greet me when I met up with the ITMI group for the audit trip until I took the initiative myself. Most of the students didn’t seem to grasp that tour directing is first and foremost a customer service position.
5.) ITMI can’t guarantee anyone work-​They claim to have relationships with 600‑1000 tour operators, but the term relationship is very ambiguous at best. Even though ITMI offers lifetime placement assistance, tour operators don’t really want to hire new people to direct tours and ITMI knows it. Even when they get a few job leads, all the grads apply using the same cookie cutter type resumes and cover letters. Mr. B will push hard to get a few people jobs because he knows it’s great marketing for the school, but the persistence it takes to have a tour directing career falls squarely on the individual student. I think a lot of folks go to ITMI because they think the school will do most of the legwork for finding jobs. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the 7,000 grads are not working professionals. In a recent article, Matt Manuel, a 2007 grad, said that only 4 or 5 from his graduating class of 35 lasted more than a year after graduation. You can see the article right here:
http://destinationmarket…
ITMI deserves credit for being the first school of it’s kind. People should know the very basics before they knock on doors, but there’s no reason this type of education should cost over $ 500, let alone $ 3000 plus lodging expenses. At the end of the day, I just didn’t trust Mr. B and his school to help me achieve my goals and I wasn’t going to risk $ 3000 to find out if he was up to the job.