When the country reopens its borders to tourists on September 23, there will be at least 481 tour guides waiting to welcome them. They are the ones who cleared the Tour Guide Readiness Assessment carried out by the Tourism Council of Bhutan. The guides were assessed based on all the required documents and written tests.
From more than 1,300 guides who registered for the assessment, the TCB shortlisted about 600 of them. According to the TCB’s Director-General, those who failed to make the shortlist were because they did not have the necessary documents including their tour guide license.
He said the written test included questions of general knowledge which more than 480 were able to pass.
The TCB says the assessment is to enhance the capability and competency of the guides and find out whether they were ready to cater to the visitors after a gap of almost two and a half years.
“Now if we don’t do this assessment, that means theoretically all these 3,000 plus guides are allowed to provide their services to the visitor. But we cannot take this risk. Because tourism has changed, for instance, we have even increased the SDF from 65 USD to 200,” said Dorji Dhradhul, the Director-General of the TCB. “Therefore, the visitors that come now after 23rd September will come with a high expectation.”
But he said the Council will be carrying out another set of evaluations and assessments for those who have failed. The council is already receiving the documents with the written exam scheduled for this Sunday.
“Those who did not get through and even those who got through have to again go through our new set of standards and certification process which we are going to introduce in the due course of time,” said the TCB head.
BBS tried to interview some of the guides who did not get through but they did not want to come on camera.
According to one guide who has been in the profession for almost 30 years, he is happy with the assessment although he was confused with his result since he felt the questions were easy.
Another guide who is planning to retake his exams said he was also in support of the assessment but that he could not prepare properly for the first test.
The Guides Association of Bhutan said they received mixed reactions to the assessment.
“I was told by some of them that if the refresher course would have been given, it would be better for them rather than giving them questions which they never expected. And because of that also I feel some of them couldn’t do well,” said the Association’s Chairman, Garab Dorji. “But some of them also said that around 90 to 95 per cent of questions that were asked were relevant to the guides.”
According to the TCB, there are over 3,000 licensed tour guides in the country.
Kelzang Choden
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
