A trip to Amsterdam opened his eyes. She discovered a “fascinating” experience and hitherto unknown in Malaga: getting to know a city with a professional guide and that visitors could voluntarily recognize the activity based on their assessment. It was the year 2010 and at that time Carlos Hernández (Granada, 1980) worked as an activities coordinator in various Spanish schools for foreigners. «He had known many tour guides, but they all worked for a fee. The fact that he was a volunteer shocked me a lot », recalls this adoptive man from Málaga, a graduate in Hispanic Philology and a pioneer of the ‘Free Tours’ in Málaga.
And it is that on his return to the Andalusian city he verified that there was a business niche that no one had exploited; a train that he was not willing to let pass. “It fit with what I was doing and I was convinced it would work.” He was not wrong. Only seven months later, coinciding with World Tourism Day, on September 27, 2010, he dared with his first group. Since then the growth has been exponential. He has gone from working alone to partnering with six other guides – all freelancers – under the malagaturismo.es brand (with 5,500 reviews on Google) and from serving a hundred tourists a month a decade ago to the current more than 2,000 among the entire team. . “The growth was such that I had to partner with other colleagues to meet all the demand and organize breaks,” he says. In spite of everything, the month of vacation is enjoyed in batches of several days scattered throughout the year and the weekly rest, if there is one, is almost never on Saturday and Sunday. “Taking a weekend off is something exceptional, although if we need it, we try to take turns,” he clarifies. “As you will see, with this panorama, reconciliation is not easy either,” he abounds.
But that crush on the trade also had its troubles. «The beginnings were not easy; there were few guides and a lot of nudges to keep us from entering new ones”, confesses Hernández, today respected by his colleagues and with a reputation behind him, but who suffered threats and intimidation from some “traditional” guides, who openly expressed their distrust of this new formula and his fear of intrusion.
But Hernández settles the matter. «Those of us who work as ‘Free Tours’ guides have to have our accreditation, because there are inspectors from the Junta de Andalucía who regularly request it. I know that there have been sanctions in Malaga for not having it, “reveals Hernández, who has seen how foreign tourism schools bring their students to do internships as guides with only having read a minimum of documentation.”
English, French and ‘malaguita’
In addition to being a philologist, Hernández is a socio-cultural facilitator, has studies in Interpretation and a higher FP degree in Guide, Interpreter and Tourist Assistance, which he studied to obtain qualification as a tourist guide in Andalusia, although he had already obtained it in Valencia as well. In addition, he is fluent in English, French and ‘malaguita’, because he also explains popular expressions to his visitors such as ‘estar alikindoi’ (it is to be attentive and comes from ‘look and do it’) or ‘guarrito’ (it is a drill and derives from the Warrington brand).
They always ask him about the popular skewers, especially if they can eat them outside of the four months that they don’t have ‘R’, which is when they are best. There is no shortage of anecdotes in this sense, since during one of the tours with a group from the US and, while trying to explain how they were eaten, the impatience to taste them led a tourist to put the whole sardine in his mouth, «head included”. On another occasion, and in his eagerness to transport them to 4th-century Malaga in front of the Roman Theatre, he gave them the recipe for garum sauce, a Roman delicatessen made from fermented fish, to smell. “We tried to recreate the atmosphere of the time, but a child broke the magic and caused a general laugh by revealing to everyone that it smelled like his brother’s shoes.”
Hernández defends his profession and tries to distinguish himself from the rest with audiovisual material related to the visit, which tourists consult on their mobiles during the tour. Work is not lacking throughout the year, “especially now that Malaga is in fashion, that ‘Free Tours’ have become popular and that our company has made a name for itself”, says this guide, who ensures that if in summer They have 40 or 50 groups a month, in low season (from the end of October to Easter) they can attend about 30, which they compensate with private tours and school activities or parallel to congresses. Despite everything, he gets a salary of around 1,500 or 2,000 euros. «Tips do not usually exceed 10 euros, although on one occasion 50 fell; I still remember that.”
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