Strategies and Measures to Support Tourist Guides amid Evolving Industry Challenges
Ministry of Trade and IndustrySpeakers
Summary
This question concerns strategies to support tourist guides against challenges like shifting preferences and unlicensed foreign operators, as raised by Mr Desmond Choo. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong highlighted the Future of Guiding 2.0 Taskforce’s plan to ensure a steady pipeline of guides. He noted that the training curriculum has been expanded to include storytelling, curation, and digital marketing to help guides offer more unique experiences. Regulations are also being simplified, such as allowing guides to self-declare language proficiency from June 2024 to facilitate faster qualification. Finally, the Singapore Tourism Board conducts regular enforcement checks and takes firm action against unlicensed guiding activities to protect the industry.
Transcript
81 Mr Desmond Choo asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry what strategies and measures are being implemented to support tourist guides in the face of evolving challenges, such as shifting tourist preferences, competition from online platforms and unlicensed tour guiding by foreign operators.
Mr Gan Kim Yong: The Future of Guiding (FOG) 2.0 Taskforce was set up in 2023 by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB). It included industry stakeholders, such as tourist guides, travel agents and tourist guide associations. The task force worked with STB to develop a FOG 2.0 plan with the objective of ensuring a vibrant and steady pipeline of tourist guides who are able to showcase the different facets of our Singapore story.
In response to the growing trend of free and independent travellers and readily available online resources for self-discovery, tourist guides will need to offer more customised and unique tour experiences to remain relevant. Consequently, the training curriculum for tourist guides has been expanded to cover skills, such as storytelling, independent research, experience curation and the use of digital marketing tools.
STB is also working to simplify the regulations for existing and aspiring tourist guides. For instance, from June 2024, tourist guides can self-declare their language proficiency and are permitted to guide in these additional languages without waiting for the biannual Multi-Language Proficiency Test.
STB takes a serious view against unlicensed tourist guides and conducts enforcement checks regularly. We will not hesitate to take firm action against firms and individuals involved in such activities.