The importance of testing and licensing tour guides

Historic City News watched with a jaundiced eye as the Savannah City Council took a vote tonight to quiet a federal First Amendment lawsuit brought by a small group of local tour guides who objected to being required to pass a history test before they can take paying customers sightseeing.

The Thursday vote repeals a 1978 ordinance that mandated tour guides in Savannah earn a license by passing a written exam, even before a US District Court judge rules on the merits of the lawsuit.

We wondered how much the brouhaha was really founded in a belief that the City was trying to infringe the tour guide’s right to freedom of expression, as opposed to a desire to be sure these “tourism ambassadors” actually knew something about the city’s history, architecture and key figures.

“I don’t think it would be a good idea, do you?” replied Old Town Trolley General Manager David Chatterton when we asked about abandoning St Augustine’s tour guide licensing ordinance, which also requires candidates to pass a written test.

Chatterton recognized that individual tour guides, or the tour companies they work for, could implement research and testing on their own; but would they? He comes back to the point that without testing, there is no way to demonstrate that a tour guide knows the basics and is starting on solid ground.

“There is lots of quick, bad information out there,” Chatterton commented on how he sees the Internet “Wikipedia” world we live in. Historic Tours of America, the parent company operating the trolleys and several walk-in attractions in St Augustine, feels like their guests deserve accuracy when they take one of their sightseeing tours. He sees general knowledge testing as an important step in achieving that accuracy.

As St Augustine is the nation’s oldest city, Savannah is Georgia’s oldest city. That is an extremely important component of their destination marketing. So, why would their council members retreat? As they left tonight’s meeting, one said they decided that decisions on tour guide qualifications were best left to the private sector.

As to whether a regulation that establishes written testing violates the free-speech rights of applicants for a tour guide license, federal courts have reached divided opinions in similar lawsuits in Washington and New Orleans.