Tour guides: when precariousness walks beneath an umbrella | Business | EUROtoday

Regulation? There is not any. The world of tour guides is hauja.” Before giving this interview, Pedro (not his real name) has insisted that his anonymity be respected. He works in a city in the north of Spain. “We all know one another,” he excuses himself. He fears that the company for which he works as a guide, a company that advertises guided tours on Civitatis and GuruWalk, will turn off his orders. On paper he is self-employed, although, in practice, he works like any employee, that is, he follows the orders of a boss, has schedules, they demand exclusivity and impose clients on him. “But I have no paid vacations, no payroll, or coverage in case of sick leave.” The only thing that is certain is that his coordinator pays him five euros per client. free tourswhere his salary depends on the will of tourists, admits that sometimes he loses money.

It’s hard to know how many tour guides are fake freelancers. Pedro, who wants to “change things,” assures that they are the majority. “Companies that have guides on the payroll are the exception.” The signs of employment are obvious. “We must carry identifying elements of the company, such as umbrellas or jackets, we are prohibited from advertising other services and we cannot reject clients.” Sometimes they have to deal with disruptive visitors, such as bachelor parties or drunk people. But unlike any self-employed person, they cannot refuse to provide the service. “If we reject clients we are penalized.”

Los free toursfree tours where visitors only pay at will, have gained popularity. Initially thought of as a way for young people and students to earn extra money, it is now a million-dollar business that is supported by a network of intermediaries. At the first level, facing the public, are the marketplacesportals such as Civitatis and GuruWalk; On the second step are the local companies that organize the activity, owners of the profiles with the best reviews. And at street level you will find the guides.

Ignacio, another tourist guide from Catalonia, who also demands discretion, speaks of a structure of abuse. “The platforms and profiles with probably the most visits, those who get pleasure from positioning on the web, impose their situations on these beneath. The drawback is just not the free excursions however the gross sales channels, that are monopolies,” he says. If the sales platforms raise the rates for membership, the owners of the profiles pass the increase on to the guides. This has forced some local businesses, like the company Ignacio works for, to fire their employees and then hire them as freelancers. Valeria, another guide from Seville, who insists on not being identified, predicts that if these platforms perpetuate their dominance, small businesses will disappear. “We won’t be able to compete or survive,” he denounces.

Los marketplaces They are outlined as portals that join professionals and purchasers. Enrique Espinel, from Civitatis, explains that his mannequin relies on intermediation, that’s, that his portal features as a mere showcase. “Local suppliers and operators organize the activities, define the operations, publish dates and times and assume legal obligations with their guides and consumers.” He assures that “we demand to attend to compliance with the local legal obligations that correspond to each territory.” Juan Castillo, co-founder of GuruWalk, the opposite main portal totally free excursions, provides that “tour operating companies and self-employed guides” are marketed on their web site. They cost a price, however to not all advertisers. “Although we have thousands of freelance guides around the world, more than 90% of them have never paid us a single euro, we allow them to be on our platform for free,” he factors out.

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Eduardo Abad, president of the Union of Professionals and Self-Employed Workers (UPTA), is aware of the precariousness of the sector. He has spoken with a number of professionals within the tourism trade and “they are all afraid of being left without orders overnight if they report it.” A concern that paralyzes the union initiative. In 2024, UGT organized a gathering with 60 guides from the Costa da Morte and Santiago de Compostela to denounce a community of false self-employed employees. However, the matter remained unsolved as a result of, when it got here to signing paperwork and showing earlier than the authorities, the employees didn’t wish to be uncovered.

Is it doable to assert? Experts consider so. For Miquel Planas, lawyer on the Monlex legislation agency, the issue “is not the free tours“but the marketing platforms, which do not ensure that companies comply with labor regulations. However, there are guides who have managed to complain before the inspection or a judge and be recognized as workers before their employers, “with the payment of accrued salaries and vacations and retroactive registration in Social Security,” says the lawyer.

For example, in 2024, a Social Judge in Valencia condemned a tourist tour company for having 13 guides as false self-employed workers; the company used claims like “get a free shot at every bar and enjoy drinking games with your guide.” Lawyer Arnau Boixaderas, professional in labor legislation and companion of the National Association of Labor Workers (ASNALA), remembers on this sense what the Supreme Court mentioned: the connection doesn’t rely on the contract “however on how the exercise is carried out.” “If the platform defines routes, schedules, visibility and mandatory reputation mechanisms, the signs of employment are clear,” the expert concludes.