Karnataka plans licence system for tourist guides | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: The govt has decided to bring in tourist guide reforms by training professionals and giving them a licence to operate.Currently, tourist guides are issued accreditation and training programmes are offered for anyone in the age group of 21-45 years (for general category and up to 48 years for SC/STs), who have passed class 12/II PU (to become local guides) or degree (state-level guides). The training is conducted as and when necessary and includes classes in history, functional English and another foreign language.There are 421 registered guides in state and many more who operate without accreditation. Tourism department wants to bring all guides under one umbrella to ensure uniformity.“Tourist guides are a prime area we’d like to focus on at this juncture. We want to get them officially accredited and ensure there is uniformity in the services they provide as well as the fares they charge,” Thrilok Chandra KV, principal secretary, tourism department, told TOI.To breach the language barrier, the department also plans to deploy multilingual translation devices, along with AR/VR tools which can help in storytelling at tourist sites. Another official said experts are being consulted to make additions and changes to the syllabus being taught to guides.“Technology could even obviate the need for guides. However, we need to balance human resources and technology. We will see which destinations have enough tourist guides available and focus on training them. Wherever technology could make a better impact than human intervention, in such places we will employ technological tools,” Chandra added.
