Tour guides told they must get a license as the emirate looks to boost its tourism potential.
he Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) officially certified its first tour guides last month, as part of the emirate’s drive to boost tourism and improve standards in the industry.
Just twelve tour guides – working for Arabian Adventures, Orient Tours, Al Khalediah Tourism and the Sharjah National Travel Agency - received their official licenses in a ceremony attended by Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmad Al Qassimi, chairman of SCTDA.
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The guides were the first to complete the ‘Advanced Tour Guiding Course’, rolled out last year in conjunction with Skyline University in Sharjah, but the plan is that by next year it will be mandatory for all tour guides working in Sharjah to have an official tour guiding license.
Al Qassimi told Arabian Travel News that the programme has been developed to ensure that tourists to Sharjah receive the right information about the emirate.
“It’s easy for companies to just take people around and talk about Sharjah even if they don’t know about it,” he said. “But we don’t want everyone to sell Sharjah the way they see it and the way they want to. We want them to understand the culture, and to know what they’re talking about at least.”
Much of the course is focused on teaching guides about the culture and history of Sharjah.
“It’s so they can talk about museums, they can talk about the different cultural and heritage areas within Sharjah, but at the same time they need to know what they are talking about,” said Al Qassimi. “They need to know not only what this museum has inside it, but why it is here and why it is part of the identity of Sharjah, so it’s a broad programme.”
Sharjah received 1.4 million tourists last year, and has a target to increase this figure by 10 percent in 2010 by promoting itself as cultural and heritage destination.
“We have our own unique points,” explained Al Qassimi, “We have 18 museums, and we have real heritage areas. We are the more authentic Arabian experience - that’s what we try to provide tourists with instead of them coming see something they can see everywhere else in the world.
We always say that Sharjah is unique like a treasure - you have to come and discover it for yourself.”
Al Qassimi added that the biggest challenge for the future would be to increase the awareness of Sharjah as a tourist destination.
“I think the main challenge is trying to reach everyone, and trying to make people understand what Sharjah is. We have been participating in several exhibitions and going to different places to promote Sharjah, talking with our different offices aboard – that’s our first step and I think we are doing very well. We just came from ITB in Berlin and we won the ‘best exhibitor’ award in our category. So step by step we are trying to reach more people.”
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