Abstract
Brighton HUROMBO Despite growing academic interest in memorable experiences, very limited research has examined how tourism frontline staff should be nurtured to become co-creators of memorable tourism experiences, particularly the tour guides. The main goal of this study was therefore to assess key tour guide competencies required to co-create memorable tourism experiences from a developing country context. The study conducted a quantitative survey with 384 respondents using simple random sampling, anchored by the cluster sampling technique. SPSS Statistics v23 and SPSS Amos v 23 were used to analyse data, with some analysis tools being employed which included the one-way analysis of variance, exploratory factor analyses, regression analyses and structural equation modelling. The study's results and the proposed model concluded that the key tour guide competencies to co-create memorable tourism experiences are personality traits, emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence (PEC), with emotional intelligence contributing the largest positive influence. Tour guide trainers and tour companies will thus benefit by understanding the relevant competencies they can prioritise during their education and training initiatives, leading to a more efficient allocation of their resources.