South African National Registrar of Tourist Guides Morongoe Ramphele says tourist guides have a key role to play in the tourism value chain.
“As the front-line professionals, information-givers and interpreters in the industry, and with growing global environmental and health scares, tourist guides will serve as important mediums for conveying vital messages that promote the goals of responsible tourism,” he said during a recent event.
He pointed out that the tourism sector had set a growth target of attracting 21-million international tourist arrivals, and reaching 4.3-million domestic holiday trips, by 2030.
However, there were many challenges that had to be overcome, including electricity supply constraints, safety and security concerns and the Covid-19 pandemic, which have negatively impacted on tourism.
“I believe we will overcome the imminent challenges that we face within the tourism industry, but we need to prepare so as to not be found waiting when the tourism markets improve,” said Ramphele.
One area for improvement is the training of multilingual tourist guides, he noted, adding that the national Department of Tourism had started a language training programme to "empower guides to be proficient in languages of countries that have been identified as focus markets, such as China".
“We are proud to say more tourist guides are getting equipped with our language training programme. Recently about 20 tourist guides participated in the programme that comprised modules for reading, writing and speaking Mandarin.
"China is the world’s largest outbound market for tourism, and this language training will enable guides to confidently communicate with Chinese tourists who often visit our country.”