About 10,000 tour guides in Vietnam will have to apply for new professional certificates in the second quarter of 2008 in a drive by Vietnam's tourism authority to closely monitor the qualifications of the workforce, a tourism official said.
The ministry would issue a circular guiding the implementation of the Tourism Law, which requires all tour guides to apply for new professional cards, Vu The Binh, head of the travel department under the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, said.
“We will issue the circular later this quarter, and all tour guides across the country will change or receive new electronic cards in the second quarter,” he added.
These tour guides including 6,000 people holding professional cards to guide international tourists, and nearly 4,000 tour guides for domestic tourists, the latter having no profession cards but only certificates issued by their travel companies.
The requirement for such certificates has been provided for in the Tourism Law since 2005, but specific guidelines on the cards have not come out until now.
When the circular takes effects, 6,000 people holding professional cards should change for new cards that have three-year validity. Other tour guides for local travel will also receive professional cards for their activities.
All application forms will be available on the tourism body's websites. The tour guides can download and send the forms to their cities' or provinces' tourism departments after filling them out.
“Our office will only accept forms from these departments and issue the card within 15 days upon receipt,” Binh revealed, adding that when these new cards expire, cardholders will have to sit an exam to prove their qualification before having their certificates renewed.
The country's tourism last year catered to 23.4 million tourists comprising 4.2 million international tourists and 19.2 million domestic ones. The industry hopes to attract 5 million foreign tourists and serve 21 million domestic holiday makers to yield VND64 trillion (US$4 billion) in 2008. (SGT, VietNamNet)
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