Travel Ethics

Having been on the other side of this equation (part of a tour) I know it was often distracting for our guide and seemed rude to me but then, people in general seem to be getting more thoughtless and egocentric. Personally, I wouldn't do it. I think it's tantamount to stealing.

This is something I can definitely comment on.

It happens all the time. Sometimes nothing is said, other times someone from my group will make a comment to the "eavesdropper"--especially if they cut in front. I've had to make a comment a couple of times.

Once, I remember this older, loud couple actually pushed my tour members aside so they could be right in front of me. As they were pushing, they actually said they were hard of hearing and needed to be at the front. Once they got right in front of me they wouldn't shut up. I told them that this was a private tour and they needed to allow the "paying" members to be up front. The woman said it was a public place and they could be anywhere they damn well pleased.

Well, my group knew that I was a jokester, so I gave them a little signal and completed my commentary--all of which was wrong. It was fun to hear the "woman" walk away saying to her husband, "I didn't know Michaelangelo and Picasso were friends."

In my case, I would never go out of my way to "latch-on" to a private tour. But if I'm at the National Gallery in London admiring a painting, and a group happens to approach the same painting, I won't hesitate to continue admiring the painting and also listen to what the guide has to say. IMO that's the way the ball bounces, I'm not about to put my fingers in my ears so as not to "steal" from the guide:)

I was on a RS tour this year and while at the Unterlinden there was an older woman doing this very thing. She kept following our group around and pushing to the front to hear the guide. The guide never said anything to her, but the woman's husband did. He told her that it was a private tour and she said that she didn't care and wanted to hear. He was obviously embarrassed (she was very, very pushy) and went on somewhere else in museum.

I personally wouldn't have cared if she stood by and listened. However, the fact that she was literally pushing people out of the way was really rude.

Edit the reason this woman had to get so close to the front to hear the guide was because we all had headphones and the guide had a microphone, so that she wouldn't have to speak very loudly in the museum. It was very obvious that we were on a paid tour, but the woman insisted on listening to our guide. This is an example of stealing, no doubt.

I'm with Michael. If a group's passing by and the guide starts talking about something I'm looking at, I'm going to listen in. But I'm not going to follow the group around. At a castle this summer, a school group came into the banquet room where we were, so we listened to the guide while the group was there, but we didn't follow them. Didn't necessarily want to be in with a huge group of school kids.

Years ago, though, when we were at Linderhof, we happened to get there right when an American tour bus pulled up. At the time, they typically didn't do English tours, but the staff at the castle invited us to join the English tour. It was just a case of good timing.

I have been on tours when I have seen this happen,, and frankly,, it doesn't bother me ,, as long as they stay BACK and let the paying tour members in front .

I don't think I have ever gone out of my way to eavesdrop,, but,, I would not move out of the way for a tour group either.. so if I was looking at something and a guide approached and started his or her spiel,, I wouldn't leave. Of course,, in Europe the speil is not always in english..LOL

I'm with Michael/Maureen. If they pass within my earshot, I'm going to listen in. But I'm not going to move to them, or follow their group around.

It's kind of like how online you can listen to a short free clip of a song to decide if you want to buy it.

I can say that what listening in I've done has certainly made me more likely to book guides in the future. A good guide adds a ton of value to a trip, and listening in on a tour every now and then is good free advertising for the guides.

It's one thing to stick around when a tour guide and group come to where you are standing. But following them is something else entirely. It's stealing, pure and simple. The guide is trying to make a living and should be paid for the service he/she provides.

Whilst I would eavesdrop in passing I certainly wouldn't stand around or latch onto the tour. My mum's friend used to run some excellent London walking tours. He always got people trying to latch on to the tour which was very unfair because he was a freelance.

I had an experience with this: My husband and I were sitting and relaxing at Glendalough in Ireland. A tour group came on the scene and was close enough for us to hear the spiel. The tour guide stopped after awhile and told us we should move on since this was a paid tour and we had not paid to be on it. I thought this was incredibly rude since we had been sitting there before they arrived and he had chosen to set up his lecture next to us. Rude behavior can go both ways. As for us, life is too short. We just walked away and continued to enjoy our vacation.

I wonder what the self-styled "Ethicist" would have to say about Connie's experience, which in effect involved the guide attempting to convert public space into private space and then excluding those unwilling to pay for the use of the newly "private" space.

Frankly, both problems are about to be solved by technology. On my recent trip to China, I saw a number of tour guides who were quietly broadcasting their commentaries to tour members who were wearing some kind of wireless receiving headphones. So bystanders couldn't "steal" the guide's spiel without paying for the tour, and the non-tour members didn't have the annoyance of a loud commentary interrupting their quiet contemplation of the exhibits. Win-win...

When I was in Venice a couple years ago, all the guides were using those wireless devices...they've been around for a while in lots of touristy places.

Except technology can't answer questions....

Perhaps the tour guide could ask, politely, how the gatecrashers intended to pay and see their reaction?

I must admit to listening in to a very interesting guide when he and his group joined me in admiring some Hogarth paintings in the National Gallery. I felt no need to move away until I'd had a proper look at the paintings and in other circumstances their arrival could have been a nuisance.

I also think if you are somewhere and a tour comes along, listening in isn't a crime or unethical. If you follow the tour without paying, you are getting closer to the line.

Having said that, I had a situation I didn't consider unethical where I followed a tour for a few minutes then dropped out without paying.

I wanted to take a walking tour in Edinburough. I knew it started at the Merkt Square about dark. I arrived a little late and noticed there were multiple tours heading out of the square in different directions.

I latched on to one I thought was the right tour. Within a few minutes I knew I had the wrong tour (this one was geared to small children) so I left without paying. I didn't consider this to be unethical because it wasn't the tour I wanted and I left within the first few minutes.

I was standing around Stonehenge one chilly rainy day in May, trying to look at the stones hard enough that I could see in to the past, and a trio of folks came to stand beside me. There was a man who knew an incredible amount about the site and it's history, and a man and woman who were asking a lot of intelligent questions. I was fascinated, and of course listened even though I kept looking at the stones. I really wanted to stay there until they were done, and then maybe follow them around. Heck a couple times I wanted to ask a couple questions of my own! But when it had seemed liked I'd been there for far too long, I moved along and let them continue with their fascinating tour. I felt a little guilty, but mostly lucky.

Is listening to talking by a guide in a private tour guide unehical ? or ethical. I think it depends on the situation. When I walked up to the top of the Acropolis at Athens, the admission ticket collector suggested to me that I join a group of tourists from Israel. The people in that group (15 people) and I were the only people on the Acropolis at that time. I stood near the left rear corner of the group, when they were standing, looking at a side of the Parthenon. One person talked to them in the Israeli language, and after he stopped talking a person talked to them in English. The talking by those guides was at only one location. I did not annoy any people in that group, and the guides were not aware that I was there. I do not think my listening to the guide there was bad behavior. That talking was interesting : the mythological history of the beginning of the Acropolis. And when we all walked away, I liked hearing the talking by the citizens of Israel, in their language.

When on our RS tour in the Forum in Rome, many "outsiders" began to gather with us as we walked and listened to Francesca, our guide. She's fabulous, and I know they couldn't help themselves. But so many began to gather with our tour that she had to politely ask them to move along.