Govt 'backtracks' On Foreign Guides

[george]

Govt 'backtracks' on guides

BANGKOK: - The Tourism and Sports Ministry and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) have denied they intend allowing foreigners to work as guides, according to the head of the Professional Tour Guide Federation of Thailand.

President Jaruphol Reungkate and about 500 guides yesterday protested against the government's purported policy, wanting to protect such jobs for local people. The group also talked with senior executives from both agencies over prohibiting the use of overseas guides.

The president of the Bangkok Professional Tourist Guide Association, Wirote Siaprasert-nand, said the group had presented the government with a proposal to establish a new body: the Tourist Guide Council of Thailand, which will represent 1,200 guides certified by the TAT.

He said the council was needed to ease many of the problems affecting tourism, to lift standards of service and develop foreign-language capabilities, adding that it is also needed to address the problem of "zero dollar tours" - very cheap package trips, particularly from China, Taiwan and South Korea. Such tours are destroying tourism in Thailand and may be costing the country more than Bt10 billion a year, Wirote said.

--The Nation 2005-11-02

[carlthailand]

What the?????

The government doesn't want to be the hub of tour guides........

Hubba hubba

C