Tourist Guide as career option - Part 2

Ranjan K Baruah *

We have published about tourist guides as career option in last edition. This edition, we are publishing more about the same topic as Manipur has immense potential for tourist guides. There are also scopes for state level guides or district level guides.

The State level Guides under guidelines approved by any of the States / Union Territory Administrations would also be eligible to apply for licenses to work as Regional level Guides provided they qualify
(a) the common selection process based on merit as detailed above for the selection of various categories of RLGs and
(b) the examination and viva voce after the training.

The applicant should be at least 20 years of age on the date of the first advertisement appearing in the media for selection of above mentioned categories of Tourist Guides.
The assessment of the requirement of Tourist Guides, region-wise, could be as per the inbound tourist arrivals, number of ASI monuments, available licensed guides, growth potential, availability of assignments to guides and all other relevant factors and would normally be done once in two years by the Ministry through a pre-defined process involving the stake holders.

The process of selection would be undertaken by the Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM), Gwalior or any other Institute designated by the Ministry of Tourism for conducting this process.

An entrance test would be conducted to evaluate the general intelligence and suitability of applicants for admission to guide training. The contents of test would be knowledge of monuments / tourism destinations In the region, Indian history & Indian Culture, General Knowledge For Linguist Guides, the written test would be conducted in the concerned foreign language.

On successful completion of their guide training course, the successful candidates would be issued Regional Level Tourist Guide License by the Regional India Tourism Office(s), Govt of India.

The area of operation of the Regional Level Guides are as under:

Northern Region: States of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Union Territory of Chandigarh.
Southern Region: States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territories of Pondicherry & Lakshadweep.

Western & Central Regions: States of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa and Union Territories of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu.
Eastern Region: States of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

North-Eastern Region: States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim & Tripura.

All those who want to be a tourist guide must remember certain code of ethics such as:
o The Tourist Guide shall always be aware of projecting a good and positive image of the country.
o The Tourist Guide shall consider himself / herself a friend of the tourists, be courteous and helpful and never betray the trust placed in them by the tourists and carry out his ethical and moral responsibilities with dignity.
o The Tourist Guide should always be courteous, efficient, tactful, kind, understanding and project the warm and hospitable. He/she would understand and convey the positive aspects of his culture and tradition, and be well versed with matters relating to local customs, habits and traditions to ensure that both the tourists and the local people respect each other.
o The Tourist Guide would always be punctual, well groomed, presentably dressed, well mannered, sober and cultured.
o The Tourist Guide shall refrain himself / herself from all possible arguments.

One may become tourist guides approved from the ministry or they may continue of their own for which they must acquire other skills like branding and marketing. Assam and North East has many tourist destination and our students may think of becoming tourist guides and earn their livelihoods. (With inputs from the Ministry Of Tourism website)

Updates:

Netherlands Fellowship Programme: Working professionals may apply for the Netherlands Fellowship Programme for Short Courses 2017 to promote capacity building by providing education and training through fellowships. Theses fellowship is fully funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Last date for sending application varies according to universities.