The UAE is targeting the tourism sector as part of its drive to diversify away from an overdependence on oil and is seeking to attract more nationals to the tour guide profession. The purpose of this research is to assess what factors influence the likelihood of Emirati tourism students considering this vocation. A model that incorporates Career Decision-Making Profile and Arabian Gulf Social Contract dimensions was developed. Survey results (n = 186) show that the nature of the job is considered attractive and, traits like ‘willingness to compromise’ and ‘independent decision making’, increased the likelihood of choosing the profession. Yet, “classic public sector” job preferences and perceptions on societal sentiment toward the ‘appropriacy’ of nonconventional vocations acted as deterrents. Recommendations are to make higher education internship programs more tailored to the individual student and modify the remit of the tour guide role at government-owned sites and venues. © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
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