Lack of tourist guides for Southeast Asia tourists
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TAIPEI - Although the Tsai administration has implemented its “New Southbound Policy” to attract Southeast Asian tourists to come to Taiwan, the new government lacks tour guides - especially those who speak Southeast Asian languages - to make the policy
The new government is coordinating with the Examination Yuan to increase the frequency and reduce the difficulty of tour-guide exams. The new government may train temporary tour guides for short-term work.
The number of tourists from mainland China has decreased after Tsai Ing-wen became president of the Republic of China (R.O.C.) The Tsai government is offering visa waivers of 30 days for tourists from Thailand and Brunei from August to attract more visitors. The Tourism Bureau plans to offer online visa waivers to eight other Southeast Asia countries, according to the official.
Although there is a relaxation in government policy, current regulations on tour guides are still strict. According to the rules, tour guides must use the same language as the tour group they lead. But it is not easy to find a tour guide who is qualified to lead tourists who come from Myanmar or Laos simply because there are not many tour guides who can speak those languages, the official stated.
The Tourism Bureau will hold a meeting today to discuss a solution for this situation with the tourism business. The possibility of temporary tour guides will be discussed at the meeting.
According to statistics, there are 27 tour guides who can speak Hindi, 47 tour guides who can speak Thai and 18 tour guides who can speak Vietnamese dialects.
The officials at the Tourism Bureau said there were 13 exams for foreign languages in total. The Tourist Guide Association has cram schools for different languages. Although there are many indigenous peoples registered for the tourist guides test, few can pass the tests, said the official.
It requires legislative action to change the test system for tour guides, so the number of tour guides can’t increase in a short time. Some tour guides are against the short-term tour guide project for fear that it would infringe their rights. “If average people can be trained as temporary tourist guides, what about the rights of qualified tour guides rights,” said some tour guides.
