… part of Tourism Awareness Month activities
THE Ministry of Tourism and the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) in collaboration with Wilderness Explorers yesterday launched off its first -ever City Tour Guide training.
The simple opening ceremony at Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, in the City, attracted some 40 participants, mainly University of Guyana Tourism students, and four GTA staffers.
The training is part of a series of activities being held during Tourism Awareness Month 2010 which has as its theme “Community Based Tourism: Preserving the Unique Character and Culture of Communities”.
Facilitators for the training which is being done only on weekends to accommodate the participants are General Manager of Wilderness Explorers, Ms. Teri O’Brien and Operations Manager of Iwokrama, Mr. Paul Waldron,  both possessing a wealth of experience in the tourism industry. The training will include both the theoretical and practical aspect.
GTA Director, Mr. Indranauth Haralsingh in an address to the participants said that tour guides are critical to a tourist experience and for tourists’ satisfaction.
“Tour guides play a very important role in helping a visitor or a tourist to interpret what is going on at a destination because a tour guide is a person that helps in more than one way to bring the tourist at ease, for them to understand a little more of the culture and customs and so forth
of a country,” he said.
Haralsingh said city tours are very popular in most countries, and they are trying to build a sustainable pool of tour guides for the capital city of Georgetown with its many attractions and rich history and culture behind it.
He further told the participants that tour guiding is a career which they can build on and move on into other areas, since the training allows one to get hands on experience and get a feel of the industry to prepare for the working world.
He assured that the Tourism Ministry and GTA are committed to training and capacity building in the tourism and hospitality sector, to the extent that during Tourism Awareness Month, training was conducted for taxi services; culinary/bookkeeping training for South Rupununi Villages; as well as frontline training for Customs and Immigration at the Moleson Crossing and the Takutu River Bridge Crossing.
Haralsingh noted also that workshops were also conducted in the areas of events management and packaging and distribution. This month,
O’Brien in brief remarks said Wilderness Explorers is happy to be working along with the Tourism Ministry and GTA to conduct City Tour Guide training which is much-needed in ‘Destination Guyana’.
Waldron who also underscored the importance of the training added that the principles and techniques that will guide them through the training can be carried to any other area.