Guide
By Taiye Baiyerohi
Lagos, April 17, 2018 (NAN) The Nigerian Tour Guides Association on Tuesday pleaded with the Federal Government to invest in the training of tour guides to boost tourism development and generate employment opportunities for many in the country.
Mr Anago Osho, the president of the association told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that training tour guides would contribute to grooming the country’s tourism industry and boost employment opportunities mostly for youths.
Osho said that the growth of Nigerian tourism would depend on the quality of tour guides produced and operating within the country.
“They determine sites that would-be tourists can visit in any country and are the first contact-point.’’
He said that the first person a local or foreign tourist comes across in a city would be the tour guide, hence, they should be trained on how to relate with tourists and visitors.
According to him, many Nigerian tour guides do their jobs unprofessionally because they lacked adequate training.
He said that there was the need to train both the old hands as well as recruit new ones on the unique selling points available in the various heritage sites across the country.
The tour guides would be able to precisely explain relevant information on heritage sites to visitors and guests.
“The work of a tour guide is very important to the growth of the nation’s tourism industry because whatever image a tour guide creates in the mind of the tourist lasts for a while.
“We have unprofessional tour guides now who need serious training on how the job must be done,’’ he said.
Osho appealed to the government to consider recruiting more tour guides as a means of curbing unemployment in the country.
“Most youths have embraced the job because of unemployment despite having little or no requisite experience.
“They needed to be trained so that they will understand that the country must be presented positively to the local and international tourists,” he said.
Osho said that relevant government agencies and tour companies should take tour guides to the various heritage sites within the country.
He said that would have the guides the opportunities to have good and practical knowledge about the diverse cultures of the people.
“We must not wait for foreign companies to do this for us for we are going to be the direct beneficiaries on the long run,” he said. (NAN)
PTB/PAD
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Edited by Peter Dada