Africa-Press – Uganda. TOURISM
In a bid to make Uganda a preferred destination for tourists, the Ministry of Tourism together with other tourism stakeholders, are moving to train, inspect, register and license all tour guides in the country.
Guides are going to first be examined to get a license and issued with identity cards.No one will be allowed to carry tourists without an identity card.The Directorate of Industrial Training will do the assessment and Uganda Tourism Board will issue the license.This is in line with Article 14 of the 2008 Uganda Tourism Act, which empowers the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) to license and register tour operators.Tourists will be encouraged to deal with persons or firms with a valid trading licence issued by the UTB. “We have been struggling with how to improve our services, professionalism has been lacking not only in papers but also practically. Guiding is a profession. You must be trained to be a guide. Many tour guides have been providing the services but not with a passion only for money,” said Godfrey Kiwanda, state minister for tourism, while making a presentation organized by Enabel, a Belgium agency.That is involved in skilling Ugandans.According to Kiwanda, there are many cases of people calling themselves tour guides, who are promising to offer tourists tour services, yet they have no skills or knowledge on handling people.Currently, there are 600 tour guides who are registered and licensed by Uganda Tourism Board, but they are so many guides who are practising yet they are not licensed.Tourism has been the leading foreign exchange earner, accounting for $1.6b.The sector has been contributing approximately 8% of the GDP and supported 667,600 jobs directly and 1.6 million jobs indirectly.In his speech, Alex Kakooza, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and sports, assured all people in the tourism sector that the ministry has developed a curriculum for guides and equipped trainers who are ready to deliver the skills.Some of the skills guides are to acquire include customer care, attitude, interpersonal skills and product knowledge.”This is long overdue, we need skills in every sector but we are happy that tourism is working on professionalizing the sector, tourism has been full of Kenyans and South Africans but with the skills, Ugandans are going to acquire, they are going to be able to employ themselves and also be internationally recognized.Speaking at the function, Pearl Hoareau, the Chairperson of Uganda Tourism Association, said that as a country, we need the entire chain of service providers perfected from the moment a tourist lands at Entebbe International Airport till he or she gets a hotel.”Since tour guides and drivers spend a lot of time with tourists, they need to be trained in the English language to be able to communicate to the tourists in a professional manner.It is not enough to just tell the visitors that that is Mabira forest, you need to explain, and this can only be achieved if the tour are trained,” said Kiwanda.Hoareau encouraged tour guides to read everything so that they are not caught off guard when asked, this will also help their client’s trip enjoyable and memorable.Addressing guests, The Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, Rudy Veestraeten, said that when you compare Uganda with its neighbours, Uganda lags behind when it comes to making money in tourism and this is because of lack of skilled workers and hospitality staff”There is an overwhelming need for better training, for the development of skills in the tourism sector. Tourism is where many new jobs lay and where Uganda can earn money for its development.Let us focus on training tour guides, to make them the best in East Africa. We, Belgians, stand ready to help and we will spare no effort to do what we say,” Veestraeten noted.Innocent Assimwe, the quality assurance officer at the Uganda Tourism Board, no guide will be allowed to operate if they have no license.”We have realized that investors need qualified people, that is why we have put in place systems where people can register. We are only waiting for the education institutions to send us people they have assessed. In future, to be a guide you must have stopped in senior four,” Assimwe noted.UTB will have the powers to cancel any licence of a tour guide convicted of an offence.
