Over 500 tour guides register for accreditation
Ministry launches survey
"We want to understand what the gaps are in training and in the accreditation framework," Chicalu said.
A total of 536 tour guides operating in Namibia have registered for accreditation.
Of these, 75.2% are Namibians, followed by guides from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4.7%), Zimbabwe (3.4%), France (2.8%), Germany (2.4%) and Italy (2.1%), amongst other countries.
This is according to tourism ministry statistician Nikodemus Amon, who was speaking at a tour guide workshop in Walvis Bay last week.
The statistics are based off a survey launched by the ministry in February to assess the available capacity of trained tour guides in Namibia post-pandemic.
According to Amon, data shows that 56% of these tour guides freelance, while only 17% are employed on a permanent basis. Both unemployed and self-employed guides stand at 8% while 7% are employed full-time and 3% are trainees.
Old guard, men dominate
According to statistics, 50% of guides have more than 10 years’ experience, while 6% are new graduates.
The survey also took note that 22% of these guides had no driver’s licence and 39% don't have a first aid certificate.
Meanwhile, 12% of registered tour guides in Namibia are women, while 88% are men.
The majority of tour guides (57.5%) are in the 35 to 54 age group, 25.7% are older than 55 and 16.2% are between 25 and 34, while only 0.6% are between 18 and 24.
“Overall, what we want out of this workshop is to develop a national framework for registration and accreditation of tour guides to understand what the gaps are in training and in the accreditation framework,” ministry’s tourism director Sebulon Chicalu explained.
Disorganised
He said during training, the ministry must look at why young people do not feature as tour guides.
“It could be that the training is too expensive or that we are training at a level where they cannot enter. But also, for those who are 55 and older, we must introduce a mentorship programme for the youth.
“If the sector remains so disorganised, we cannot address the challenges that there are. We, for instance, saw with the data collected that there are no Chinese-speaking guides, while this is a tourism market we are targeting.”
He added that when all inputs are gathered, tour guide regulations will be submitted to the minister, which will then be gazetted.
“But where we are now, we still have a lot to do through the training side.”
Chicalu said they will continue with the survey to gain further information.
“We want to organise the sector; we want to make sure the standards are in place so that our guests are happy and it helps us expand the tourism sector because the professionalism is so good.”
Of these, 75.2% are Namibians, followed by guides from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (4.7%), Zimbabwe (3.4%), France (2.8%), Germany (2.4%) and Italy (2.1%), amongst other countries.
This is according to tourism ministry statistician Nikodemus Amon, who was speaking at a tour guide workshop in Walvis Bay last week.
The statistics are based off a survey launched by the ministry in February to assess the available capacity of trained tour guides in Namibia post-pandemic.
According to Amon, data shows that 56% of these tour guides freelance, while only 17% are employed on a permanent basis. Both unemployed and self-employed guides stand at 8% while 7% are employed full-time and 3% are trainees.
Old guard, men dominate
According to statistics, 50% of guides have more than 10 years’ experience, while 6% are new graduates.
The survey also took note that 22% of these guides had no driver’s licence and 39% don't have a first aid certificate.
Meanwhile, 12% of registered tour guides in Namibia are women, while 88% are men.
The majority of tour guides (57.5%) are in the 35 to 54 age group, 25.7% are older than 55 and 16.2% are between 25 and 34, while only 0.6% are between 18 and 24.
“Overall, what we want out of this workshop is to develop a national framework for registration and accreditation of tour guides to understand what the gaps are in training and in the accreditation framework,” ministry’s tourism director Sebulon Chicalu explained.
Disorganised
He said during training, the ministry must look at why young people do not feature as tour guides.
“It could be that the training is too expensive or that we are training at a level where they cannot enter. But also, for those who are 55 and older, we must introduce a mentorship programme for the youth.
“If the sector remains so disorganised, we cannot address the challenges that there are. We, for instance, saw with the data collected that there are no Chinese-speaking guides, while this is a tourism market we are targeting.”
He added that when all inputs are gathered, tour guide regulations will be submitted to the minister, which will then be gazetted.
“But where we are now, we still have a lot to do through the training side.”
Chicalu said they will continue with the survey to gain further information.
“We want to organise the sector; we want to make sure the standards are in place so that our guests are happy and it helps us expand the tourism sector because the professionalism is so good.”
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