Hi amos, I love your idea and many times I too thought about offering myself as a personal guide in Madrid and surrounding areas or even all around Spain.
I looked into it a while back and found that it is possible to do this but you need to be careful and keep your groups small. The groups need to be like 6 tops since the tourism industry here is very controlled and technically in order to show groups of tourists around you need to have a tour guide certification which required 2 yrs study and a bit-o-cash at the end to pay a license.
So, while "officially" you need to be dertified, off the record one could easily just say they are showing "friends" around if ewver asked (I doubt anyone would ever bother you though).
When I was looking into this I was thinking of doing it with a guy who had an ad in the InMadrid newspaper here offering his services as a tour guide to vistors. We met and he told me all about the requirements and certification thing, problem was that he was not certified and was just a guy who was knowledgable on Spain. H ealso told me that he got a call one day from one of the bigger tour companies here threatening to report him for illeagally running "tours"
I have personally been contacted (due to multimadrid) by couples and even groups of 4-8 people who were visiting Madrid and wanted a tour of the city. I was very attracted by the idea of doing a personal insiders tour and all but I passed on it due to lack of time on my part. Some visitors to Madrid also have told me that their tours were less than educational and they were very disappointed with the ones they signed up with through a tour company. All of this has lead me to think of giving tours again but I do not want to tackle it alone.
Maybe we (and any others interested) can work on a project together, I certainly have the perfect marketing tool with my website as well as the passion for this country to make it work
I think marketing it as a "Travel Consultant" for Spain is a great idea and could get you around that certification thing.
So, I really do love the idea and would like to discuss it further with you and/or any other peoples that are in love with and knowledgable about Spain and want to set up a tour service.
I know for a fact that Elisa (the owner of the
LOS AMIGOS BACKPACKERS HOSTEL has been looking for a person to take her hostel guests on Madrid tours, you might want to contact her if you are interested in the gig. I am not sure if she is still looking but I think she is.
Saludos,
jer...
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