Tourism authority steadfast on tour guide cards

HCMC – The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) stands by its decision on professional cards for tour guides, saying these employees have to obtain the new plastic cards under the new Tourism Law if they are to continue their job.

Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department of VNAT, told the Daily that the paper-based cards expired on September 30, and no new deadline is now given.

“We need to comply with the Tourism Law. Tour guides can’t serve tourists without these professional (plastic) cards,” he said, rejecting a new request from HCMC to soften the stance to give tour guides more time to meet the requirements.

Under the new law, tour guides serving international travelers must have a bachelor’s degree, a new requirement that many professional guides fail to meet.

The HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism last week asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and VNAT to ease the qualification requirements to solve the situation, especially for tour guides serving guests from China, Germany and Japan.

The city’s tourism department asked VNAT to allow such tour guides to change for the new cards first and then complete the degree over the next three years.

The city’s department said that over half of the professional tour guides in HCMC catering to foreign tourists cannot change their paper-based cards for the plastic due to higher standards.

“In 2006, we once allowed the provincial tourism departments to issue temporary cards for tour guides, giving them time to complete the degree, but many people ignored the requirement. We need to follow the law,” he said.

According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, after three months of issuing new cards to tour guides, fewer than 700 guides have obtained the plastic compared to the number of 1,680 professional guides in the city.

In related news, VNAT has asked all international travel companies to change licenses before December 30. The change is required under the Tourism Law, which took effect in January last year.

VNAT said the old licenses would expire on that date.

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Validity of tour guide cards extended to end-Sept

HCMC – Local tour guides can use their paper-based practicing cards until September 30, instead of on Thursday, following a new decision by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

VNAT earlier asked the provincial departments of culture, sports and tourism to complete the issuance of the new plastic cards by September 1, but this job cannot be completed due to strict requirements provided by the Tourism Law.

The law forces tour guides to have a bachelor degree but many experienced guides for markets such as Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea find it impossible to meet this requirement, meaning they cannot change their cards.

This explains why only 283 of 1,680 professional card holders serving foreign tourists in HCMC as the country’s tourist hub have had their cards replaced so far.

The new rule has put many tourism companies at stake, such as those serving Chinese-speaking tourists. The city has only 184 tour guides responsible for tourists from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Taiwan but visitor arrivals from these markets are on the steady increase.

Last year, Chinese-speaking visitors to HCMC accounted for 21.6%, or more than 500,000, of the total number of international arrivals. For that reason, many companies will certainly fall short of tour guides if these people fail to change their cards.

“Just about half of the tour guides can change their cards but the proportion of eligible Chinese-speaking guides is even lower because many of them do not have a bachelor degree,” said Nguyen Duc Chi, deputy head of the Travel Division of the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

He said VNAT’s latest decision to the extend the deadline for card change would help resolve the problem for French-speaking guides because they had 10 years’ experiences and a high-school diploma on French before 1975 as required.

“To me, the requirements should be flexible depending on experiences and skills rather than an academic degree. But the law has no mention of work experience,” Chi said.

Chi said the department was not sure whether it could get the card changing job done by the end of this month.

For tour guides for domestic visitors who now have certificates issued by their travel companies, they will also have to register for the new cards with the administration.

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National Day tour bookings up

Tourist boats cruise in the World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay in the northern province of Quang Ninh - Photo: Bach Lien

HCMC – Most of the tourism companies have reported a rise in tour bookings for the long National Day holiday this week.

The Government has allowed state agencies and mass organizations an extra day off this Friday, thus prolonging the National Day (September 2) holiday to four. The decision is believed to fuel demand for travel.

Strong demand usually drives up tour prices but travel firms said the would try to stabilize prices and that if they were forced to increase prices for some reasons, the hikes would be confined to the 5-10% range.

Saigontourist has reported a 15% year-on-year improvement in bookings, mainly for three to five-day tours in Vietnam or abroad.

Pham Duc Hoa, deputy manager of the domestic section of Saigontourist, said in a statement, “For the National Day holiday, our company has 35 domestic tours of two to five days for tourists to choose.

“We expect to attract 2,500 domestic tourists during the holiday. Local tourists mostly go for two or three-day tours, while overseas Vietnamese people prefer longer tours, five to six days.”

Pham Thu, manager of the outbound section of Saigontourist, said over 800 tourists had booked overseas tours, mostly to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Cambodia. These tours last four to six days departing from Hanoi and HCMC.

Vietravel has also seen tour bookings surging 15% year-on-year. Vietravel prepares to take 1,250 guests around the country and 2,000 others to foreign countries.

TST Tourist said it expected the number of people taking its tours could jump 72% from the same period last year.

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