Lacking standard tour guides, travel firms call for help

Nearly 400 tour guides in HCM City have reportedly unable to meet the requirements for renewing their practice cards because they do not have university degrees, which has caused big worries to travel firms that they do not have enough tour guides for international tours.
Travel firms cry about lack of tour guides
In an effort to standardize the tour guide force, the Tourism Law has set up stricter requirements on tour guides.
Under the law, the practice cards for international tour guides have to be renewed once every three years. Meanwhile, tour guides must have university degrees and tourism certificates if they do not finish tourism faculties of universities. Also, they also have to have foreign language degrees or other certificates as requested.
Initial statistics show a high percentage of tour guides who speak English and French and can renew their practice cards. Meanwhile, low percentages have been reported for the tour guides who speak less common languages such as Japanese, Korean, Thai, German, Spanish or Arab, because the tour guides cannot meet the requirements.
Travel firms have complained that if referring to the current applied standards, they would not have enough tour guides to serve the increasingly high number of international cruise or MICE (meeting, incentives, conference, and exhibition) tourists.
The firms have also complained that a lot of tour guides, who can meet the requirements, have left the firms to work as freelance tour guides to earn bigger money. Lacking standard tour guides, a lot of travel firms have to hire freelance tour guides at the fees which are double or triple the normal fees.
Meanwhile, other firms have “dodged the laws” by using the tour guides who have not renewed practice cards. However, the firms have asked the tour guides to bring old cards with themselves when practicing. If the tour guides are discovered as not having renewed cards, the tour guides need to ask “for the forgiveness” from the inspectors.
A lot of experts have voiced their concern over the current situation, calling for necessary actions to settle the problems, or Vietnam will miss many international tourists.
HCM City agencies try to disembroil the trouble
According to Nguyen Duc Chi, a high ranking official of the HCM City Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism, the department has renewed and granted 1222 cards to domestic tour guides and 1330 international tour guides. Meanwhile, a lot of tour guides have not got new cards, and most of them are the tour guides who speak less common foreign languages such as Japanese, German, Russian, Korean, Spanish and Chinese.
Chi said that most of the tour guides are experienced who have been working in the field for many years, but they are old or do not have university degrees. Meanwhile, the current training is still not good enough to satisfy the demand of the tourism industry.
The department, after consulting with the HCM City Tourism Association, has asked the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism VNAT to allow to apply some measures to settle the problems. If the proposal is accepted, the department would grant cards to the tour guides who have junior college degrees and meet the requirements in professional skills and foreign languages, provided that the travel firms which are using the tour guides send dispatches to ask for the granting.
The department has also proposed VNAT to reconsider the cases, where tour guides speak non-English, French and Chinese, once got practice cards and can meet the requirements on professional skills and foreign language skills, have at least five year experiences, aged over 50 (male) and over 45 (female). As for the cases, travel firms need to send dispatches to the department which will then examine the cases and discuss with VNAT on the granting of cards.
As for Chinese speaking tour guides who have temporary or official cards, who still do not have university degrees, but can meet the requirements on professional skills and foreign language skills, and commit to obtain university degrees, would be able to get 3-year practice cards from VNAT.