Tour guides are crucial in tourism

Government said it will introduce a new system of licensing tour guides in partnership with the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA). In a statement through the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) the members of the public, and aspiring tourism nature guides; (excluding Professional Hunters),  were informed that a new system of assessing and licensing tour guides will be introduced with effect from 1st June 2016.

“The current system of examining Professional Tour Guides offered by Botswana Wildlife Training Institute will be discontinued and licensing of professional Tour Guides will be done through the new system,” the department said.

The new system will be implemented through BQA-accredited professional guiding training institutions and aspiring guides will, therefore, have to enrol for nature guiding courses at a BQA-accredited institutions that offer industry- based qualifications that are registered in the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

“Upon successful completion of such courses, they will be issued with certificates/awards of competence. The certificates/awards will then be used as proof of competence to DWNP when issuing the licence.”

A book titled: Tour Guiding Research: Insights, Issues and Implications which was co-authored by Prof. Rosemary Black (from the Charles Sturt University in Australia and Betty has highlighted the importance of tour guides in tourism.

According to the two authors, they had concluded that although tour guiding plays a crucial role in sustainable tourism, tour guides are undervalued.

“I have been to guided tours in countries with languages I could not understand and I put myself in the trust of tour guides,” Prof. Rosemary Black said at the launch of the book last year.