The BVGD represents the professional interests of German tourist guides with policy makers at both a national and a European level. It also supports regional cooperation between tourist guides and serves as a contact platform.
It ensures European quality standards in Germany through its extensive quality management and training concepts. Both the BVGD Certificate DIN EN 15565 and the BVGD Certificate of Professional Extended Training are outstanding qualifications that attest a guide’s professionalism and skill.
The BVGD promotes tourism within its own country as an outstanding and future-oriented area of the economy. It upholds sustainable tourism and supports the respectful handling of Germany’s cultural and natural heritage.
Its homepage provides detailed, up-to-date information on all the association’s benefits, topics, objectives, and service offers. Visitors can find professional tourist guides in German cities and regions by clicking on “Find a Tourist Guide”. Here, links are provided to all local guides’ associations and their special offers. The list of BVGD-certified guides provides direct email addresses for these specially qualified tourist guides.
The BVGD members’ magazine CICERONE is published twice a year. It tells its readers about current topics in the association as well as providing other valuable information. It also introduces specific activities and events held by BVGD members, such as partner museums, or new tourism-relevant publications on the book market. As a professional magazine, CICERONE reaches out to tourist guides, agencies, organizers, and tourism institutions, both in printed and digital form. Since 2016, the CICERONE SPEZIAL catalogue has provided information about more than 100 BVGD member organizations and their special offers.
The online newsletter GUIDE INFO reaches out to members and partners in tourism with relevant news about the tourist guide business about 10 times a year.
More than 400 museums and institutions offer free or reduced entry to BVGD tourist guides for the purposes of research. In return, these partners have the opportunity to present themselves in detail in CICERONE, the BVGD magazine. An increasing number of institutions in neighbouring European countries and worldwide also accept the BVGD culture card and offer members a discount.
The BVGD represents its members on national and international platforms, as attested by its membership of the two international guides’ organizations: the European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (FEG) and the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFTGA).
As a member of the FEG, the BVGD cultivates an exchange of opinions and experiences concerning the different political and social conditions for guiding in the EU. Regular meetings set the course for close cooperation on the European market. In this context, the FEG supports the implementation of the European Norm DIN EN 15565 for the training of qualified guides.
The WFTGA initiated International Tourist Guide Day (ITGD) as an annual event on 21 February. The BVGD now organizes this day every year as the “Weltgästeführertag”. Held under the motto “Get to know Germany for free!”, the event invites the public to find out more about guiding. Run jointly by the BVGD members, ITGD has now become a successful institution. Since 1999, more than 230,000 people have taken part in its events in Germany.