Gaucho Tour Association

The Gaucho Tour Association (GTA) was founded in 2003 to increase students' interest in leading tours for UC Santa Barbara. At the time, the campus was unable to pay the student tour guides, but the GTA began offering students leadership opportunities and a family on campus. In its first year, the GTA was 18 tour guides strong. Over time the organization grew, adding more student ambassadors each year until 2006 when the GTA became so popular that interviews were needed to select new tour guides. Many student leaders left their own mark on GTA over the years by developing new tour routes, expanding the organization's prospective student outreach efforts, and building a friendly, diverse community of student guides. Today, we have a diverse staff of student leaders from all across campus. We strive to represent UC Santa Barbara positively through campus tours, student panels, social media, and other programming. We believe in being proactive ambassadors, so we do our part to give back to the community through service opportunities and our public speaking workshops. Of course, we also love to hang out with one another, which makes being a tour guide not only the most rewarding job on campus, but it also welcomes you into a great family and support system.