Editorial

Guides and tour operators as professionals play a key role in the growing global tourism industry, supporting, engaging and diverting visitors who travel to places they want to learn more about and be entertained by. Behind the scene there are challenges and tensions related to the particular professional roles, the vibrant matters and staff that stand-in for the guide, physical efforts, and the competitive and vulnerable position guides have on a highly competitive job market. ‘Key role’ is also ‘contested space’. This special issue focuses on the guides and tour operators and the challenges they face in their working role.