Rwanda Development Board (RDB) in partnership with Rwanda Safari Guides’ Association, an umbrella body for local tour guides on Friday awarded and certified local guides who showed competitiveness and ability in the tourism industry.
Over 40 guides received certificates which were in Bronze, Silver and Gold.
According to the association, the guides are classified basing on their knowledge about the industry through assessments.
Bronze is the first rating given to guides followed by Silver and then later Gold.
Gold is the highest rating and whoever gets this rating has to be knowledgeable about tourism beyond the borders of the country to other touristic sites in different parts of the world.
Until now Rwanda has no guide under the gold level.
Emmanuel Nsabimana, the head of customer care and Tourism Regulations Division Manager at Rwanda Development Board, said that the work of Guides is vital in selling the image of the country and they should be well equipped with more skills.
He added that Rwanda is investing more efforts in tourism because of its role in the economic development of the country.
"Our target is getting $ 800 million from the sector in 2024, this requires all stakeholders to work hard to serve tourists professionally,” he said.
"Tour guide is a very important job. In many cases, the tour guide is a traveler’s first impression of a foreign country. In other cases a guide may be responsible for teaching tourists about the culture and sites of a city or town. In addition tour guides hold the responsibility of teaching tourists about safety,” Nsabimana added.
Patrick Kwizera, Rwanda Safari Guides’ Association chairman said the association last year initiated grading and classifying in order to determine the standards, professionalism and ability of a guide to offer better services to tourists.
"Our vision is to produce professional guides in collaboration with stakeholders, which will benefit both guests to Rwanda, and the country at large. All guides have to be professional, and specialised. The assessments seek to create awareness of basic tour guiding principles, and the competencies for professional tour guiding,” Kwizera said.
The association has 173 members who do daily guiding duties.
"The guides should undertake extensive personal research on their field to gain more knowledge. When tourists are served professionally, they become ambassadors and this requires the cost of dedicating our time to exploit and discover more about the sector. Sometimes, tourists come with their own guides but we want t0 be advanced to get to the level we can do everything ourselves,” he added.
Pamela Giramata Gasana who got a Bronze rating said that she will keep on learning and doing more research to get more skills.
"I am really excited with this rating and this is proof to other girls that we are able to guide. Guiding is my passion. I am proud of being a guide. Many females think that the career is so complicated and should be done by males. I really want to prove that women and girls are able to do the profession. We are few and I will keep encouraging my fellow girls. I try to do my job professionally to show how competitive we are,” Gasana said.
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