Lacking Korean-speaking Tour Guides

South Korea is Vietnam’s second largest tourism market, but the workforce of Korean-speaking guides is currently poorly qualified and too small, and the need is met by uncertified tour guides. The tourism authority is seeking short- and long-term measures to overcome the situation and ensure sustainability in Vietnam tourism.

Currently, the number of South Korean visitors to Vietnam is sharply rising. Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) showed that South Korea is now the second largest tourism market of Vietnam, only after China. In the first six months of 2007 alone, Vietnam welcomed some 260,000 South Korean visitors. Also according to VNAT, only 10 per cent out of 5,758 certified tour guides can speak Korean, while English-speaking tour guides account for 43 per cent, Chinese-speaking 23 per cent, French-speaking 10 per cent, Japanese-speaking 8 per cent, German-speaking 3.9 per cent and Spanish-speaking 1.3 per cent. The lack of Korean-speaking tour guides leads to the increase of uncertified tour guides.

Mr Pham Huynh Cong, chief inspector of VNAT, said the number of international couriers is too small (only 50 people with international tour guide cards); leaving space for uncertified tour guides, who are South Korean working in Vietnam or South Korean students in Vietnam. They guide Korean tourists in Vietnam to earn money. In fact, many groups of South Korean tourists with a deep understanding of Vietnamese tourism colluded with Vietnamese travel firms to hire Koreans as tourist guides during their visits to the country.

 

Mr Cong explained that the law violation is both subjective and objective. In recent years, the volume of South Korean visitors to Vietnam has soared sharply, while Vietnam lacks professional couriers with a good command of Korean language. Furthermore, Korean is now not a popular language and tourism schools, thus, pay little attention to this language. Vietnamese international travel firms are rather insensitive to market demand and fail to have a strong guide force. Many travel firms still rely on State-funded schools to train tour guides.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recently coordinated with relevant organs under the Ministry of Public Security to investigate travel operations in Hanoi City. Within a month, the investigators discovered 40 violations, including 16 cases of uncertified couriers guiding South Korean visitors.

 

Mr Cong said the discovery and resettlement is very difficult and complex. Travel firms always know how to avoid discovery and investigation by authorities, so tackling uncertified tour guides is very difficult. Punishment of violations is inconsistent at best.

 

Another difficulty eradicating uncertified tour guides is the limited number of tourism investigators. Currently, Vietnam has only 46 tourism inspectors, including 14 people from VNAT, 6 from Hanoi Department of Tourism and 3 from Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism. In the meantime, there are more than 10,000 tourism companies, serving more than four million international visitors and 2 million Vietnamese visitors a year.

 

According to Mr Cong, if the tourism industry is slow in tackling its difficulties, Vietnam could become full of uncertified tour guides. Vietnam would not be able to exploit the economic benefits from tourism activities and more importantly, the sustainability of the market could be distorted. Therefore, the solution to this problem is difficult, but very important.

 

Mr Pham Tu, general director of VNAT, said in the near future, English-speaking tour guides will instruct visiting South Koreans (if the visiting group has persons speaking English well). The Travel Department will cooperate with the South Korean Embassy in Vietnam to train South Koreans living in Vietnam on tourism knowledge and Vietnamese culture. Then, VNAT will permit Vietnamese companies to coordinate with these South Koreans to guide South Korean tourists visiting Vietnam. This does not conflict with the law and could meet critical demand. According to Mr Tu, the tourism industry employs people who can speak Korean after they return from work or study in South Korea. In the long term, Vietnamese tourism schools need to offer Korean courses for their students.