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I was the one that ASKED for that arrangement. Other guides were paid by the hour. At that time( 2008 ) it was ten dollars an hour. I knew that I could do better for myself.
I knew that the passengers would be willing to tip a small amount, for the service that I provided. If they didn't tip I wasn't going to hold them hostage on the bus.
You are making a huge jump of logic, that is for sure. With no actual knowledge of the situation, either.
Tour guide jobs can be so varied. I worked for a company that did tours of 1-3 days outside of my city. I was hired to interpret for the main tour guide, but in effect, I needed to know the facts, dates etc. to be able to a decent job, because the main guide's speeches were often too long for me to remember (we weren't supposed to take notes). There were lots of different destinations, and some were very enjoyable (the closer ones), and others were a real slog. It depended on the distance, but also how much free time the tourists had, which varied depending on how the company set up that city's specific tour.
It was a very mentally and physically taxing job for the money. My typical tour was a 15 hourish day, and I had to leave my house at 5:15am to get there on time. I wouldn't know I was working until the afternoon before--the company had to have a good idea of the # of tourists of which languages to be able to schedule. The company wanted you to work in as many languages as possible on the same tour to save money on personnel, but I had a real hard time switching back and forth all day so I ended up doing only one language usually.
It could be a lot of fun--I met some very interesting people and often had a good time, but I wouldn't do this for a career. It didn't seem to be a dream job for anyone. The full-time guides had to work all the time in the summer if they were going to get work in the off-season--it left very little time to actually sleep. It was a second job for me, so I could just say no, but still I found myself studying facts the day before or getting stressed if I was working on a tour that I didn't usually do, which was ridiculous for the amount of money I was making. If there was a delay (traffic/problems with the bus), we weren't paid for it and in fact probably made less money because the tourists were pissed (the pay was base plus tips).
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