The meeting on Saturday followed Deputy Prime Minister Gen Thanasak Patimapragorn, who oversees tourism affairs, on July 10 firing a warning shot at the tour guides, whose profession in Thailand is reserved for Thais only by law
Deputy PM Thanasak revealed that he welcomed an initiative to allow foreigners to work as tour guides. That initiative was floated on the understanding that there are not enough Thai tour guides proficiently qualified in the languages needed to serve key tourist markets, including Chinese.
To this, Jarupol Ruangket, President of the Association of Confederation of Thailand Tourist Guides (ACTG), which was established only on July 8 this year, vehemently argued that there were enough qualified Thai tour guides.
The problem was tour companies wanting to use their own staff, he said. (See story here.)
Mr Jarupol led the meeting on Saturday, held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, together with Chart Janthanaprayoon, President of the long-standing Professional Tourist Guide Association of Thailand.
Present at the meeting were tour guides from 11 formal tour guide associations and four clubs hailing from Phuket, Phang Nga, Krabi, Satun and Surat Thani provinces, as well as from Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Officially, the representatives discussed the objectives of the establishment of the confederation on July 8 and suggested policies in resolving “tourism issues” as well as the effect of these “issues” on guides, Mr Jarupol has already warned would results in “huge unemployment”.
The meeting was held to discuss how to develop tour guides’ vocation in order to provide the best service to tourists visiting Thailand.
“This meeting is to make understanding in objective for the union as a confederation and to listen problems and find solutions,” Mr Jaruphong said.
“Especially that illegal tour guides take benefits from tourists and that illegal tour companies bring tourists to Thailand, as well as to encourage tour guides to be concerned about protecting our tourism industry,” he added.
No details of any suggestions or decisions made at the meeting were made available.
As recently as Friday, the day before the tour guide meeting was held in Phuket Town, another “suspected” illegal guide was caught leading tourists feeding fish at Koh Racha Yai, south of Phuket. (See story here.)