The tourism sector across the world came to a standstill due to the global pandemic. While the pandemic has left many scraping to get by, the Tourism Council of Bhutan (TCB) is turning this into an opportunity to upscale the skills of tour guides.
Many guides dependent on the industry lost their jobs and the means of earning.
“Most of the tour guides, around 3,000 have been affected by this pandemic. Most of them have family, so it’s very difficult for them to pay the rent also since we don’t have any source of income and we depend on kidu. We try to join the CDCL work as well as the Build Bhutan Project,” said Lhamo a Tour Guide.
To engage the guides and build their capacity, a series of Dialogue was initiated recently. And during the second session of the Bhutan Tourism Dialogue, the chairperson of The Guide Association of Bhutan (GAB) shared that because of the rising number of the tour guides in the country, the professional guides have to compromise their rate since the operators want to use the guides who are affordable. Hence, the TCB with relevant stakeholders is working on to professionalise the guides.
“Roughly around 100 guides are trained in trekking for around 50 days and then we have another 45 in nature tour guiding and another 50 in Sowa Rigpa,” said Garab Dorji, the chairperson for GAB.
He also said the trained guides will be able to provide value-added services to the clients once the tourism industry reopens in the country.
“We have shortages of good trekking guides who are trained professionally, so this will help us. And even on long tours, the guides who are training in Sowa Rigpa can provide foot massage, head massage and shoulder massage to our elderly clients,” he added.
“We are very lucky to upskill ourselves during this pandemic. We have learned about trekking routes, flora and fauna and we are hoping to benefit from this course after tourism reopens,” said Tempa Rabgay, a tour guide.
Meanwhile, the TCB is a little sceptic of tourists arriving anytime soon due to the mandatory quarantine while entering the country.
The dialogue series was initiated to keep the travel industry informed and engaged through bi-monthly discussions among the stakeholders.
Sangay Dorji
