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Oct 06, 2018 / 06:06

Vietnam to rank tour guides for first time

The ranking will be conducted through the assessment of three main criteria which are capacity, knowledge, skills of the guide.

The Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) has announced the launch the “Vietnam Travel Guide Ranking” project with assistance from the European Union. Accordingly, the ranking will be conducted through the assessment of three main criteria: capacity, knowledge, and skills of the guide.
 
Foreign visitors to Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: VNA
Foreign visitors in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: VNA
From early October to the end of 2018, the Vietnam Tour Guides Association (VNTG) will deploy the ranking in Ho Chi Minh City (from October 22 to 24), in Hanoi and Quang Ninh in November; and in other provinces and cities, such as Khanh Hoa, Lao Cai in December.
This is the first time Vietnam implements such a program to encourage tour guides to strive to improve their professional skills and knowledge in order to better meet the needs of tourists. On the other hand, the ranking of tour guides will create favorable conditions for tour operators to sign contracts and pay wages.
The guides who have participated in the ranking are classified into 3 categories: Platinum (5 stars), gold (4 stars) and silver (3 star).
The tour guide ranking promises to contribute greatly to the country's tourism industry, especially when the quality of guides is increasingly improving to meet the needs of development of the industry.
According to Vice President of the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) Vu The Binh, in the first stage, the pilot program will be applied to the guides who are members of the Vietnam Tour Guides Association (VNTG) nationwide. After the pilot period, the VITA will improve the criteria and regulations to advance the ranking of all tour guides.
Up to now, 23,055 guides have been licensed, including 14,428 guides to serve foreigners and 8,412 guides to serve domestic visitors. However, only about 5% of these guides have signed contracts with businesses, and pay social insurance. Approximately 95% are freelance guides and do not participate in social insurance. Therefore, the VNTG has been selected by the Hanoi Social Insurance as the official voluntary social insurance member of the members.
Vu The Binh also said that the 2019 International Travel Mart will be organized from March 27 to 30 in Hanoi. Accordingly, with theme “Green Tourism” the event aims to towards the realization of the global sustainable development objective of 2030.
In order to develop sustainably, Vietnamese tourism enterprises need to exploit reasonably and efficiently tourism resources, contributing to conservation of natural resources, protecting the environment and restraining pollution in the tourism destinations.