Vietnam awash with foreign guides

18 Mar 2014  2036 | World Travel News

Tourism authorities say even though foreigners are banned from providing tourist guide services, many are still openly flaunting the law.
Under Vietnam’s Law on Tourism, which took effect 1 January 2006, only Vietnamese citizens can offer tourist guide services.
South Korea, China and Russia were identified as the problem countries because of the shortage of local tour guides who can communicate with visitors from these three markets.
However, authorities admit there are many foreigners who are selling guiding services mainly due to the shortage of Vietnamese who can speak foreign languages or are prepared to be guides.
Due to the lack of skilled tourist guides, illegal foreign tourist guides can enjoy high financial returns in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa as well as in Danang, Quang Nam and Ho Chi Minh City.
Khanh Hoa provincial Tourism Promotion Centre director, Nguyen Van Thanh, told local media: “If we don’t resolve this issue, it will be really harmful to national culture in the long-run.”
In order to improve standards, authorities in several destinations have increased inspections of illegal operations linked to foreign tourist guides, he said.
Authorities in Khanh Hoa province have also dealt with several cases involving illegal foreign tourist guides mainly tour firms from South Korea, China and Russia.
In addition, several localities have been speeding up their plans to provide language training in Russian, Chinese and Korean for local tourist guides.
The Khanh Hoa provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has forwarded a tourism human resource development plan to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for approval.
Quang Nam provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism chief inspector, Nguyen Duy Quang, said that last year they had fined one South Korean tourist guide for illegal operations.
In 2012, they also fined several illegal foreign tourist guides a combined amount of US$14,201, including five Chinese citizens. Two of them were expelled from Vietnam.
The ministry’s Vietnam National Administration of Tourism director, Nguyen Van Tuan, said towns should translate information about their destinations into different languages as a stop-gap measure.
“The ministry has been conducting a programme to support tourist guide training since 2013. New programmes will start in Khanh Hoa province and Phan Thiet city in the second quarter of this year before expanding to Ninh Thuan, Vung Tau, Phu Yen and Phu Quoc.”

Sourced: ttrweekly

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