Senate Seeks Action On Foreign Tour Guides In Phuket

[Pops]

“We have discussed the matter with Russian, Korean and Chinese tour operators, but it seems they don’t want to employ Thai guides. Even though our guides are highly qualified, the operators still say they are not good enough,” Mr Phanomphon said.

Unfortunately for mr. Phanomphon, its the tour operators opinion, whether the Thai guides are good enough for them or not, that counts.

Do something about their level and use the critic as positive info for training Thai guides instead of fighting it.

[Payboy]

I'm guessing the gemstone galleries complained feeling left out.

[easybullet3]

so, will thai people mind if they are not allowed a Thai national when they book a tour holiday package to a foreign country with a large thai tour group?

[davidstipek]

Do you think your going to find any Illegal Guides Now?

Think with your brain, not your wallet!

You post this article and poof! They are gone..... They read the papers also!

Another thing if your MIB go in and search in Uniform... To bad they none here... They are now an Executive! Hide your shiny badges and dess they the rest of the resident's.

Why not use someone who isn't know here, his face is fresh!

If you are serious! Think what damage you have already done to this investigation!!

[Tchooptip]

You should ban all tourists and then you won't need any tour guides.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION (Sorry) : You should admit only Thai tourist then you won't need any tour guides! ผมในทางปฏิบัติ

[Jimi007]

so, will thai people mind if they are not allowed a Thai national when they book a tour holiday package to a foreign country with a large thai tour group?

I wonder how often that happens, other than overseas travels by TAT members to "promote" Thailand.

[robertson468]

I suggest the adviser looks at what is best for the industry and stops being overly protective of jobs. I would also suggest there has been a see-change in the Nationalities that are now coming to Thailand on holiday and sadly, the Thai Tourist Industry has failed to keep pace with this change. Instead of adopting this closed mind attitude, perhaps the adviser should recommend that Russian, Chinese, South Korean etc Guides may be employed for three years, to allow the Thai Guides to become qualified in the appropriate foreign language. This blinkered attitude neither benefits the Industry or the Tourist.

[jocko]

I am sure the bigger problem is

1) The stupid Thai logic, "you must have a degree to even take the course". My wife speaks English quite well and has a great personality to boot. She applied to be a guide but was rejected because she doesn't have a degree. Now thars sume smert thankin goes in on.

2) Having any kind of interest in your own country. I recently asked some Thai adults what were the most interesting places to visit in Thailand, all said Phuket (one of the worst places to visit) and none could provide me with more than two places to visit. I can easily give you half a dozen and none of them are temples.

3) Having a desire to know something more than what is the best skin whitening cream or what Thai super stars are doing or the stories in insipid Thai soap operas. My wife, her parents, and my wife's friends will watch Thai soap operas all day. Not that you have much choice as the 5 major TV stations show nothing but idiotic Thai soap operas or more deplorable Thai slapstick comedy shows. No science channel, no history channel, no science fiction, no crime dramas, nope just stupid soap operas all with the same basic theme. Hour after hour after hour. The Thai teachers at my school have this shit on all day. Clearly very few brain cells being exercised.

4) Who would want to listen to a Thai tour guide massacre the English language? Better to have people speaking the visitors native language give the tour. Oh wait a minute that's what they are doing. Ya ya I forgot this is about protectionism.

I'm waiting for some bright individual in the Thai bureaucracy to come forward and make a statement like "we need pass law stop them Native English Speakers from teach English, our Thai's knows do it just as gooder is them peoples"

5) [wink] [nod] If we pass a law against this then we can force these tour operators to pay even more tea money, er ah I mean higher Thai tour guides. Ya ya that's what I mean, higher Thai's.

Considering they only trained 300 Thai's to be tour guides I guess you could assume there isn't much desire by the Thai people to become tour guides. Maybe this guy should focus his energy elsewhere.

I agree ,Any Thai with a degree in foreign languages would i'm sure get a better job than a tour guide i have found that ordinary Thais who have jobs that require them to speak English or who have married foreigners can manage very well so i think they would be ideal to be a guide

[JulesMad]

"No, no, I am not a tour guide, maybe it looks that way, but I live here and I was showing my friends around in your beautiful and peaceful country"

That's what I would say as a tour guide...

Tip: if you run into any 'official problem', give a nice (preferably believable) explanation and say something really nice and flattering about Thailand (in one sentence!). It makes it much difficult to disagree what you just said to them... Works pretty good for me

[arrowsdawdle]

As I know - the Thai guides don't speak Russian - only several words - so how can they work as tour guides for the Russian tourists? And the tourists are often asking different questions regarding not only the tours they take. It would be very poor service and tourists satisfaction level if touroperators took the Thai guides.

Developed and first world countries have minimum standards of accountability and responsibility to satisfy liability scrutiny and failure to provide the bare minimum standards could expose a tour operator to serious law suits. It is safe to say that fluency of communication in the native language of the tour guests is a minimum standard. If there were a fire or a flood or any of a myriad of potential emergency situations that resulted in injury or loss or worse to guests, that tour operator is not only out of business, they are facing huge lawsuits. Insurance carriers would never honor or write a policy to cover a situation or tour operator that did not meet minimum standards.