Local tourist-guides losing jobs to foreigners
ALTHOUGH AUTHORITIES have been cracking down on illegal businesses and guides for years, more than half of local certified tourist guides have lost their jobs to phoneys coming from overseas. “About 60,000 have been certified as professional tourist guid
“That means more than half have already lost jobs or have very few assignments,” Wirote Sitaprasertnand, president of the Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand, said yesterday.
Authorities, including the Tourism Ministry and Tourist Police, have been tackling the illegal business and tourist guide problem for years, but it remains unsolved.
Professional guides should have been busy, as the inbound business has been surging for years.
In fact, more than half of certified guides are unemployed. Many of them are seeking new jobs, as theirs have been snatched away by non-certified guides coming from overseas.
Chinese-speaking guides alone are expected to number 5,000-6,000 and half of them are non-registered.
Up to 80 per cent of Chinese on tour packages are travelling with non-certified operators and non-registered tourist guides.
“This is a major cause of local certified guides losing their jobs. We are urging authorities to push more measures to solve this problem,” he said.
The association predicts that 20,000-22,000 Chinese tourists arrive in the country per day.
As the biggest market source, China is expected to send more than 8 million visitors to Thailand this year.
The Korean, Russian and Scandinavian markets are facing the same problem – a shortage of registered guides.
Tourism Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul said her ministry has been cracking down on illegal businesses by working with police and local authorities to detect nominees in major provinces such as Phuket and Bangkok.
This year to April 15, 374 non-registered tourist guides were arrested by Tourist Police – 130 in January, up nine from the same month last year; 125 in February, up from seven; 102 in March, up from 10; and 17 from April 1-15, up from four at the same time last year.
The government would continue addressing the problems of nominees, illegal operators and fake guides as part of plans to enhance the country’s image as a quality destination.
This year to April 24, the country has welcomed 11.1 million international tourists, up 13.8 per cent from the same period last year.
Due to strong growth, the ministry has revised up its arrival projection for this year from 30 million to 32 million.
