If you are hiring a tour manager, or writing your own résumé for the role, a clear job description saves everyone time. This guide gives you the duties, skills, and requirements that actually matter, plus a template you can adapt. For the day-to-day picture, see what a tour manager does.
Tour Manager Job Description (Template)
Role: Tour Manager
Reports to: Artist management (or the artist directly on smaller tours)
Works with: Band, crew, production manager, promoters, venues, booking agent, travel agent
Summary. The tour manager is responsible for the planning and day-to-day running of the tour: schedule, travel, accommodation, advancing, settlement, and the wellbeing and timekeeping of the touring party. They are the single point of contact for everyone on the road.
Responsibilities
- Build and maintain the tour schedule and publish a day sheet for every day
- Book or coordinate flights, ground transport, and hotels, and maintain the rooming list
- Advance every show with the venue and promoter
- Collect and reconcile the show settlement and report to management
- Manage the tour budget, pay per diems, and track expenses (see how to budget a tour)
- Handle guest lists, credentials, and visitors
- Manage visas, work permits, and insurance for international dates
- Lead the touring party, communicate every change early, and solve problems when plans break
Skills and requirements
- Experience on the road in any touring role, or running smaller tours
- Strong organization and attention to detail
- Comfortable with budgets, cash, and basic accounting
- Calm under pressure, with a habit of planning for what could go wrong
- Clear written and spoken communication
- Willingness to travel for weeks at a time and work long, irregular days
- Familiarity with tour management software (see our comparison of the options)
Nice to have
- A driver's licence, and experience driving a van or bus where the tour requires it
- Experience with international touring and carnets
- First aid training
- Experience with front of house, backline, or production
Skills a Tour Manager Needs
Hiring managers usually weigh these ahead of formal credentials:
- Judgment. Knowing which problems to solve now and which can wait.
- Reliability. Being where the schedule says, every day.
- Money handling. Settlements and per diems go wrong when records are loose.
- People skills. The TM sits between the artist, the crew, and outside partners, and has to stay level with all of them.
- Systems. A good TM works from a repeatable process rather than memory. See the tour manager checklist.
Writing Your Tour Manager Résumé
If you are applying rather than hiring, show the work instead of listing adjectives:
- Name the tours, with the number of shows, the size of the touring party, and the regions covered
- Say what you owned: budget, travel, advancing, settlement
- Mention the tools you used and the artists or companies who can vouch for you
- Keep references current. In this industry, the next job almost always comes from someone you worked with
How to Pay and Contract the Role
Terms vary widely by tour size and artist. Settle these in writing before the tour:
- Weekly or per-show fee, and whether it applies on days off
- Per diem (see how per diems work)
- Who pays for travel to and from the tour
- Any commission or bonus structure
- Notice period if either side ends the arrangement
Where to Find a Tour Manager
Most hires come through referrals from other managers, production managers, and booking agents. If you are new to hiring, start with the people already working with your artist. If you are building a path into the job, read how to become a tour manager.
Once the TM is in place, give them the right tools. TourPro keeps the schedule, travel, and day sheets in one place the whole party can see, and it is free for teams up to 5.
