International Tour Management Institute (ITMI) tour directors introduce themselves like addicts in a twelve-step program, “Hi my name is Randy and I’m a tour director”. And after just one day with this rowdy, passionate group I realize they are addicts: travel and the want to share the travel experience flows in their veins.

In the opening general session featuring businessman, author and speaker Barry Moltz, I was transported from the California Ballroom of the Doubletree by Hilton in Sacramento to Fenway Park mid-Red Sox/Yankees game. Admittedly, I was a tad tired, but the whooping and applause that came from the tour director crowd made it easy to borrow a buzz.

We were up at 4.30am to catch the Greyhound from San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center. The San Francisco to Reno (via Sacramento) service leaves San Francisco at 6.15am (Greyhound requests passengers to get to the terminal an hour before departure) so we caught the sunrise in Oakland before heading past signs signaling the turnoff to Napa and Sonoma wine country. And suddenly (after an easy 90 minutes) we’re in Sacramento.

According to their website, the Doubletree by Hilton begins check-in at 4.00pm, but at 9.00am we were checked-in by the lovely DeAuna, handed the Doubletree signature chocolate chip cookie and in our rooms shortly thereafter.

The day’s business saw Dirty Harry and Jack Nicholson’s Colonel Jessop (or their tour director counterparts) make important customer service points in Mr Moltz’s presentation followed by a lunch where ITMI president Ted Bravos was presented with a moving proclamation from Sacramento’s high profile mayor Kevin Johnson via Sacramento Convention and Visitor Bureau president Steve Hammond.

It was a smart move to feed and water the tour directors before the inaugural ‘Ask the Tour Operator’ session. Hot topics included: whether where a tour director lives impacts employment; how changes in group size may change salaries and tips; tour director rankings; and how industry and technology changes will alter a tour director’s work.