Promchote Traivate, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Tourism, revealed the news while in Phuket to discuss the issue yesterday (June 16).
“Tourism and Sports Minister Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul presented the plan to the Cabinet today [June 16],” he said.
The plan is to allow foreigners to work legally as “Tourism Coordinators”.
“The main purpose is to cut down the number of foreign tour guides by educating Thais to be fluent in foreign languages,” Mr Promchote explained.
“We have been unable to stop the problem of illegal foreign tour guides because our guides have not had the language skills needed to conduct tours. When foreign guides realize that we can handle this by ourselves, they will have to look for jobs elsewhere.”
Mr Promchote stressed that “tourism coordinators” will not be allowed to work as a tour guides.
“The coordinator will be permitted only to help facilitate tours and assist and train Thai tour guides in language,” he said.
“And not every foreigner applying for a job as a tourism coordinator will be approved. We will work with the Department of Employment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and each application will be considered case by case.
“We will not not approve any permits where we believe there are enough Thai guides with the right skills for the position that the foreigner is applying for.”
Random checks will ensure that tourism coordinators are not working as illegal guides, Mr Promchote added.
To bolster the campaign, Thai guides identified with good language skills will be selected and sent abroad to improve their language skills to near native speaker level.
“This will start from the beginning of next month,” Mr Promchote said.
“Many students majoring in hospitality or languages are more interested in careers as Thai guides nowadays,” Mr Promchote noted.
“We have made the career choice more available by reducing the required minimum education from a bachelor’s degree to secondary school graduate certificate. I believe that within two years the problems with illegal tour guides will decease a lot.”
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Santi Pawai, director of the Phuket MoTS office, did not welcome the move to hire foreigners as tourism coordinators. He says that Phuket has enough tour guides and he is worried about foreigners “crossing the line”.
“I think it is risky to allow foreigners to work as tourism coordinators. We have enough tour guides who speak a third language [Thai, English plus another language],” he said.
Mr Santi pointed out that strict measures were enforced to control illegal foreign tour guides in Phuket.
And although working as a tour guide is an occupation reserved for Thais by law, Mr Santi added, “We have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the tour guide associations and tour companies to allow only Thai nationals to work as tour guides.”
Krich Thepbamrung, acting president of the Phuket Tour Guide Association, voiced his concerns about the project, but supported the move in that it would make it easier to keep track of foreigners working with tour groups.
“We also talked with the tour guide association in Bangkok and we agree that making these underground people legal for another job position has a good point – their details will be kept on an official register,” he said.
“If they break the law or do bad things, the authorities can easily track them down.”
However, Mr Krich remained concerned that law enforcement would not be strong enough to handle the number of foreign “tourism coordinators” working in the industry.
“Even though working as a tour guide is illegal for foreigners, plenty of them still do it,” he said. “If the government makes it legal for foreigners to be tourism coordinators, they will have to make sure they have enough manpower to ensure those foreigners do not break the law.
“We understand that we cannot prevent this if the majority prefer to make this legal. What we will do is tell the authorities our view and point out our concerns to prevent any future problems.”