SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) – Before they can legally take paying customers sightseeing in Savannah, local tour guides must first pass a 100-question test on the city’s history, key landmarks and architecture. The textbook for the exam is a 111-page manual that City Hall produced.
Savannah officials say the testing and licensing requirements for tour guides ensure they have a base level of knowledge about Georgia’s oldest city. Tour guide Michelle Fleenor sees it as local government meddling with small business owners and unfairly singling out tourism workers who talk for a living.
“They say all the time ‘we want our tour guides to…,’ but we’re not your tour guides. We’re privately owned businesses,” said Fleenor, who started Savannah Belle Walking Tours six years ago. “If I’m going to hire an employee, it should be up to me. I should be the one asking questions.”
Fleenor was among a small group of Savannah tour guides that sued the city in federal court last November, saying a 1978 ordinance requiring them to earn a city license violates their free speech rights. Both sides recently asked a U.S. District Court judge to decide the case from the bench, without a jury trial.
City Hall’s attorneys said licensing tour guides is a perfectly legal use of the local government’s “police power to regulate business.” They argue that deciding who’s qualified to give sightseeing tours is vital to protecting Savannah’s $2.29 billion tourism economy. The city has about 330 licensed guides.