Touring the Worthiness of Tourist Guides in Malaysia Today

Abstract

Tourist guides are one of the front-liners that undisputedly ascertain the success of any tourism activities conducted by the tourism enterprise. The touring activity would be more fruitful and enjoyable with the existence of a tourist guide. The law requires that any transportation of more than seven persons that has an element of tourism be escorted with a licensed tourist guide (requirement by MOTAC, enforceable in August 2014). However, this is rarely the case today as there is lacking in the demand for tourist guides even before the COVID-19 period. The development in information technologies causing difficulties to tourist guide to get assignments to continue their tour guiding jobs. They have to compete with online virtual information providers that could easily be available anywhere in the world. Thus, this paper would discover the relevance of tourist guide during this era by exploring the problems faced by a tourist guide in the tourism industry and suggest several solutions to the issues encountered by tourist guides in the execution of their job. A qualitative method was adopted in this study where several tourist guides and tourists were interviewed. This study found that tourist guides are still significant and relevant, some problems faced the current tourist guides. Several suggestions were proposed so that tourist guides could maintain their importance in the industry. The writers interviewed several tourist guides for the purpose of this writing via telephone calls, face to face meeting and in-depth written interviews. It is hoped that the outcome of this writing will help the legislature, policy makers and those involved in the tourism industry to bear in mind the role of tourist guides in their decision making.