Professional tour guides oppose foreign guide imports

[webfact]

Professional tour guides oppose foreign guide imports

 

 

BANGKOK, 10 July 2017 (NNT) - Thai professional tour guide organizations have issued a statement confirming their stance against the importation of foreign guides to solve a shortage of local and Chinese-speaking guides. 

Professional guides argue that there are indeed enough Thai guides who can speak Mandarin to serve Chinese tourists. Acting chairperson of a Thai-Chinese tourist guide club, Thinnakorn Sae Luang later commented that the government should seriously stage a crackdown on tour operators acting as nominees of Chinese businessmen to put an end to the problem of zero dollar tours. 

Mr. Thinnakorn said the government’s tourism-related agencies should be reformed so that they can be equipped with knowledge of tourism management methods, while tour guides should play a role in the issue. 

According to the Division of Tourism Business and Registration under the Department of Tourism, there were more than 76,000 licensed tour guides in 2016. Around 52,000 of them are general tour guides and 18,000 others are area-specific ones.

 

-- nnt 2017-07-10

[edwinchester]

If there were Thai guides with proper language qualifications then this would cease to be a problem.

My Thai wife qualified as a tour guide with English language.

On her course with maybe 60 students there were, including herself, 3 with good English skills.

All 60 passed.

[Maestro]

Removed a troll post.

[Deli]

To the benefit of the tourism industry, these laws must be changed.

But before this will happen, the majority of Thais will speak understandable English and pigs will fly.

[AhFarangJa]

If the truth be known they are more than likely scared of the competition showing them up for what they are.

As edwinchester posted, His wife, and two others with good English skills passed, but so did every other student too....so that makes a possible 57 frauds.

[Rancid]

I don't know, can kind of understand them not wanting to out source local jobs, most countries think like that. Besides that shouldn't guides actually know about the country they are guiding in and also speak the local language.

 

Kind of like Croc Dundee leading Aussie tourists around Thailand, sure everyone would understand him, but he would know bugger all about the place.

[maewang99]

here is the Zero Sum Game mentality.... another thing mutually drummed and reinforced into each other's heads.... in every dollop of conversation, "schooling" etc etc.

it's all a Big Game where there is a pie that gets shared.... and the size of the pie is fixed. and.... this is why having a Thai Only tribe is so good for all of the Thai people.....

not.

pie sizes are not of a fixed size. a pie made at a bakery might be... but I'm using the word 'pie' in a different sense. economics. 

economics, and most things in life, are quite a bit more nuanced than we like to believe. or were told to believe.

in fact, economics is all but infinitely nuanced and that's why (1) simple theories don't work (2) it's interesting (3) can be very profitable if you agree with (1) and (2)... otherwise you are very likely to gravitate to, and then get stuck at, the bottom of the totem pole.... but not because it is a Zero Sum Game.... it just seems so from down there.
 

Edited July 10, 2017 by maewang99

[simon43]

Here's a 'hi-tech' solution to the problem. (Actually, it has been used for decades in many museums).

 

- Get a Thai tour guide who can speak fluent Thai (I'm sure there is at least one person).

 

- Pay that person to record (in fluent Chinese), separate descriptions of all the tourist sights that exist in Thailand, (so a good few weeks of work for that guide).

 

- Upload these audio files to a web-server

 

- Provide all Chinese tourists with the address of that web-site.

 

- When the Chinese tourists are in the vicinity of a tourist attraction, they use their mobile phone internet browser to visit this 'Virtual Tour' web-site.

 

- The web-site application software grab's the GPS location of the tourist's mobile phone and automatically plays the correct audio file for that tourist attraction, (or the tourist can manually select the tourist attraction from a drop-down list of locations).

 

- The tourist can pause, replay the audio file as required, or can manually select other audio files, such as:

'What to do when you are scammed by a jet ski owner'
'What to do when your new Thai girlfriend has extra bits in their pants'

etc etc

 

So the Chinese save even more money, (no need to pay a tour guide), and the protectionist Thai guides are out of a job.

 

Problem solved... :)

[Oleg57]

2 minutes ago, maewang99 said:

here is the Zero Sum Game mentality.... another thing mutually drummed and reinforced into each other's heads.... in every dollop of conversation, "schooling" etc etc.

it's all a Big Game where there is a pie that gets shared.... and the size of the pie is fixed. and.... this is why having a Thai Only tribe is so good for all of the Thai people.....

not.

pie sizes are not of a fixed size.  a pie made at a bakery might be... but I'm using the word 'pie' in a different sense. 

economics, and most things, are quite a bit more nuanced than we like to believe. or were told to believe.

in fact, economics is all but infinitely nuanced and that's why (1) simple theories don't work (2) it's interesting (3) can be very profitable if you agree with (1) and (2).



 

Free market normally works perfect. Any licensing, regulations, and bans - slow down economy and bring eventually any country to a collapse.

[Oleg57]

Just now, simon43 said:

Here's a 'hi-tech' solution to the problem. (Actually, it has been used for decades in many museums).

 

- Get a Thai tour guide who can speak fluent Thai (I'm sure there is at least one person).

 

- Pay that person to record (in fluent Chinese), separate descriptions of all the tourist sights that exist in Thailand, (so a good few weeks of work for that guide).

 

- Upload these audio files to a web-server

 

- Provide all Chinese tourists with the address of that web-site.

 

- When the Chinese tourists are in the vicinity of a tourist attraction, they use their mobile phone internet browser to visit this 'Virtual Tour' web-site.

 

- The web-site application software grab's the GPS location of the tourist's mobile phone and automatically plays the correct audio file for that tourist attraction, (or the tourist can manually select the tourist attraction from a drop-down list of locations).

 

- The tourist can pause, replay the audio file as required, or can manually select other audio files, such as:

'What to do when you are scammed by a jet ski owner'
'What to do when your new Thai girlfriend has extra bits in their pants'

etc etc

 

So the Chinese save even more money, (no need to pay a tour guide), and the protectionist Thai guides are out of a job.

 

Problem solved... :)

Actually, foreign tourists are interested in personal opinion of an individual of their home country origin  about Thailand and the places to go as well as advising specific to them. It is rarely somebody pays any attention to information about attractions. Just visual impression. It is not attending museums. It is about having fun.

[DLock]

Define "professional tour guide".

[CharlieH]

Tour guide/ operator is a protected "Thai" only job anyway, according to the list of prohibited occupations.

 

http://www.thailawonline.com/en/others/labour-law/forbidden-occupations-for-foreigners-jobs.html

 

[rkidlad]

'Professional tour guides oppose foreign guide imports'

 

Local tour guides also said they'd prefer not to have to improve nor work for their salary. 

[inThailand]

20 minutes ago, DLock said:

Define "professional tour guide".

An overpaid Thai in a uniform

[the guest]

29 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Tour guide/ operator is a protected "Thai" only job anyway, according to the list of prohibited occupations.

 

http://www.thailawonline.com/en/others/labour-law/forbidden-occupations-for-foreigners-jobs.html

 

 

In the west, we do not have such discriminatory legislation as it's a criminal offense to have such laws. Thailand is yet to strive to join the civilized world, and yet prefers to re-introduce the 'square' wheel instead. 

[Saan]

5 hours ago, edwinchester said:

If there were Thai guides with proper language qualifications then this would cease to be a problem.

My Thai wife qualified as a tour guide with English language.

On her course with maybe 60 students there were, including herself, 3 with good English skills.

All 60 passed.

I agree with you about many tour guides lacking fluency in English. 

But the story is about bringing in Chinese guides. My wife too is a tour guide and she is fluent in Hokkien and Mandarin yet she and the other Chinese speaking Thai guides are far from busy at the moment. Bringing in Chinese guides would certainly hurt their living.

[dcnx]

4 hours ago, Father Fintan Stack said:

In the other paper that cannot be named or linked to, Jarupol Ruangket, president of the newly-established Association of Confederation of Thailand Tourist Guides (ACTG) refers to foreign guides as (and I quote) "savages".

That's the pot calling the kettle black.

[Kasset Tak]

I went to Sukhothai Historical Park, one of the UNESCO heritage sites in Thailand and said to be the first capital of Thailand and here were many many people that could speak English and they had books and brochures in English about the place so no problem there.
Then I went to Tak city and walked into the TAT office, one could speak English and they had no written tourist information in English. From there I went to Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park, another UNESCO heritage site. And again no one could speak English and they had no written tourist information in English.

As I least has learned some Thai I have ended up helping people/tourists more than 1 time, this is because there are not many English speaking Thais around when you get outside the main tourist areas. Last time there were a couple of Spanish women that started talking with me on the bus, it turned out that they were on the wrong bus and I could help them so they got to the right city. At the ticket counter, they could not understand them clearly so they had sold them tickets to Sawankhalok instead of Phitsanulok... the names both ends with lok!

So is there a need for foreign guides and people who can speak English and other languages?! YES, at least from my own experiences from living and traveling here in Thailand.

 

Luckily for me I at least understand Thai enough to get around but what about all those people that just come as tourists?!

[The Dark Lord]

4 hours ago, simon43 said:

Here's a 'hi-tech' solution to the problem. (Actually, it has been used for decades in many museums).

 

- Get a Thai tour guide who can speak fluent Thai (I'm sure there is at least one person).

 

- Pay that person to record (in fluent Chinese), separate descriptions of all the tourist sights that exist in Thailand, (so a good few weeks of work for that guide).

 

- Upload these audio files to a web-server

 

- Provide all Chinese tourists with the address of that web-site.

 

- When the Chinese tourists are in the vicinity of a tourist attraction, they use their mobile phone internet browser to visit this 'Virtual Tour' web-site.

 

- The web-site application software grab's the GPS location of the tourist's mobile phone and automatically plays the correct audio file for that tourist attraction, (or the tourist can manually select the tourist attraction from a drop-down list of locations).

 

- The tourist can pause, replay the audio file as required, or can manually select other audio files, such as:

'What to do when you are scammed by a jet ski owner'
'What to do when your new Thai girlfriend has extra bits in their pants'

etc etc

 

So the Chinese save even more money, (no need to pay a tour guide), and the protectionist Thai guides are out of a job.

 

Problem solved... :)

I think I spotted a problem there........

[YetAnother]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

Professional guides argue that there are indeed enough Thai guides who can speak Mandarin to serve Chinese tourists.

ok; don't take my job even tho i am not good at it; remind anyone of the chiang mai uber issue ?

[Saan]

How many of the proposed Chinese tour guides do you think will be able to speak Thai? What a big help these guides will be when they can't speak the local language.

The Chinese 'zero dollar' mob are just trying to con their way back into Thailand.

[coulson]

Why don't they just call them interpreters to save face?

[observer90210]

Time to UBERize the tourist guide industry!!!

[ericthai]

17 hours ago, the guest said:

 

In the west, we do not have such discriminatory legislation as it's a criminal offense to have such laws. Thailand is yet to strive to join the civilized world, and yet prefers to re-introduce the 'square' wheel instead. 

Sorry but that is not correct. The USA regulates how many work visas are issued each year and for what market. Depending on the category of work depends if  a certification from the U.S. Department of Labor is required  to show that there are not enough U.S. Workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to be employed at the same job and that no American workers are displaced by foreign workers.  I'm positive other western countries protect they work force too. 

[mok199]

title should read  ''TOUR GUIDES'' etc...professional only be thai standards...

[Bangkok Barry]

On 7/10/2017 at 9:41 AM, Rancid said:

I don't know, can kind of understand them not wanting to out source local jobs, most countries think like that. Besides that shouldn't guides actually know about the country they are guiding in and also speak the local language.

 

Kind of like Croc Dundee leading Aussie tourists around Thailand, sure everyone would understand him, but he would know bugger all about the place.

Plenty of EU workers and from other places employed in the UK in all kinds of roles, and they appear to be generally well-respected. But then UK folk don't get upset and lose face if a foreigner does a job as good or better than them. Thailand has a lot of growing up to do.

[Saan]

On 7/11/2017 at 7:16 AM, mok199 said:

title should read  ''TOUR GUIDES'' etc...professional only be thai standards...

When you are fluent in 5 languages and speak another reasonably well, as my tour guide wife does, we will talk about your professional standards.

I gather by your post that English is your second language.

[Dipterocarp]

Stop blaming the foreign workers earning a pittance guiding, mucking out fish, building more hotels, and all the rest

JAIL the bosses, mostly Thais, that profit from illegal labor. Confiscate their assets.

 

Sorted.